ESPN analyst Mina Kimes shrugged her shoulders on Gardner Minshew as the Raiders’ starting quarterback on NFL Live Monday, but she did warn the league not to sleep on the team’s backs and receivers.
Kimes said she didn’t know whether the team made the correct decision at quarterback and thought Aidan O’Connell actually outplayed Minshew in the preseason. The Raiders tapped Minshew, she guessed, based on his ability to protect the ball. Since 2019, only three quarterbacks – Aaron Rodgers (1.15), Tom Brady (1.53) and Patrick Mahomes (1.68) have a lower interception percentage than Minshew (1.69).
“In going with Minshew,” Kimes said. “They’re betting on that lower interception rate and the occasional big play, which you did see on the bomb to Tre Tucker (Saturday), who I think is a really underrated speedster, and I think this Raiders skills group is also really underrated. So, everything is set up there actually for Minshew to have some success but what we have seen from him over the course of his career, particularly recently, is a lot of variance. Highs, lows, and I think they’re going to ride that as long as they can.”
Last month on the Mina Kimes Show with co-host Jon Ledyard, Kimes pointed to another Las Vegas unit that could carry the team this year: The defense.
In 2023, the Raiders defense finished eighth in the NFL in DVOA. Ledyard was surprised.
“They seem to be way short on talent,” Ledyard said, “that you would typically look at and say, ‘Oh, this is a top-10 defense in the league.’ But they got there last year, and every year, there are some anomalies. Part of our job is trying to find those ones. We do have those random spikes, carried by like an eight-game stretch of really good play against less-than-subpar quarterbacks and things like that. But there also are the ones where, ‘OK, this is the spike that begins the rise of another great defense.’”
If that spike from last year begins the rise of another great Raiders defense, Kimes said she wouldn’t be surprised.
“I don’t think it was all fool’s gold with them,” Kimes said last month on her show. “And then they added to that front with Christian Wilkins. I think the front will be really good. We talked about Jack Jones, who’s a player that I like. I think Patrick Graham has the potential to be a very good defensive play-caller; he has been, at points. But they’re not deep. I think, in the secondary, I still have some questions.”
x: @raidersbeat
What team did she ever play for
The 6 ft and under league.