There were a few surprises when the Raiders announced their initial 53-man roster on Tuesday, and arguably the biggest surprise was the news that Aidan O’Connell made the team despite an underwhelming preseason and a wrist injury in the third preseason game that is expected to sideline him for up to two months.
The team’s decision to keep O’Connell doesn’t immediately make sense, and Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers called it his biggest surprise of the day.
“I really thought Cam Miller was going to make the 53-man roster because of the injury to Aidan O’Connell. The move that wasn’t made was probably the biggest surprise for me, that Aidan O’Connell is initially on the 53-man roster,” Myers said on the Locked on Raiders podcast.
“Now that could always change,” Myers continued. “They can claim someone off of waivers and decide that they want that roster spot, and that could change. But for now, we know Aidan O’Connell is out six to eight weeks. We know that he has the fractured wrist. He’s got to have the surgery. I thought that felt like that was going to be the end of Aidan O’Connell with the Raiders, especially after they made the trade for Kenny Pickett.”
“But in fact, Cam Miller is the one that they decided that they’re going to wave him, try to get him on the practice squad and try to develop him there, as opposed to being three quarterbacks on the active roster, with Cam Miller being included in that. Instead, now they’ve got Gino Smith, they got Kenny Pickett, and they’ve got Aidan O’Connell, even though we know Aidan O’Connell is not going to be doing anything for a little while. So that stood out to me as pretty interesting.”
At the very least, it safe to say the Raiders’ coaching staff still has confidence in O’Connell.
The Raiders could have dumped O’Connell on injured reserve and tucked him away for the season, but they clearly believe he has value on the field or potentially as a trade piece.
Looking back to earlier conversations from training camp, O’Connell reportedly showed up in the best shape of his career, so it’s possible the coaching staff saw enough in practices to ignore some of the mistakes he made in the preseason.
For anyone who doesn’t remember, here were a couple of comments made about O’Connell in July…
“Aidan O’Connell was never out of shape, but he looked like he was in fantastic shape,” Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter said at the start of training camp. “His body was toned, and he flew through drills with ease. He showed some today that I had not seen, and while there is zero QB controversy at QB1, there is zero QB controversy at QB2.”
But it was flagship radio host ‘JT the Brick’ who offered the most enthusiastic description of O’Connell in his first day of practice.
“One big takeaway I have today, with my own eyes, the only thing I saw today that I couldn’t wait to tell you was Aidan O’Connell… he looked unbelievable,” JT said on his weekday Raider Nation Radio show.
“Aidan walked by me [and] clearly changed his body, his workout, the ball looked unbelievable. I talked to [offensive coordinator] Greg Olson [and] he’s like ‘Yeah, something’s up with Aidan O’Connell.’ He looked fabulous today. I didn’t get a chance to talk to him, but that was the buzz today by a lot of people I was watching with… I was impressed.”
Sooner or later, the Raiders will show their hand on O’Connell and what their long-term plans for him happen to be, but for now he’s taking a spot on the 53-man roster and isn’t going to be available for potentially another two months.
Meanwhile, Tom Brady’s sixth-round project at quarterback in Cam Miller can be picked up this week by any team that wants him.
x: @raidersbeat
I was shocked that Sincere was waived (and by the way it is not “waved,” and it not “Gino,” and all the other misspellings in this article) and O’Connell was kept. I assumed they’d put him on IR. I don’t have an opinion about Cam MIller but it’s certainly helpful to have someone younger to develop. My hope is that we win 8-9 games this year, which won’t put us in the running to get a top QB in the draft. O’Connell did not look good in his preseason games. I don’t understand this, and it worries me.