The Raiders are moving into the summer months of the offseason with what appears to be a legitimate quarterback competition between Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew.
But is there an early favorite to win the job?
According to The Athletic’s Vic Tafur, the leading candidate at the moment is the one who signed a two-year, $25 million deal with the team in March.
“[Gardner] Minshew, in all likelihood, will be the Las Vegas Raiders’ starting quarterback when the season opens in September,” Tafur wrote on Tuesday.
“O’Connell has earned the right to compete against Minshew, but the Raiders didn’t give Minshew all that money because he has a sweet mustache. And while we’re on it, it’s really $25 million, as it’s hard to see the Raiders being in a position where they would cut him next year and take a $14 million dead salary-cap hit rather than pay him another $10 million.”
Looking ahead to training camp it will be interesting to see how the Raiders distribute their first-team reps at quarterback.
Will there be a QB1 out of the gate or will the quarterbacks split reps evenly until someone seizes the job?
Decisions are coming, but there’s a chance the competition will continue into the final week of the preseason – with the hope being that one of the quarterbacks will leave the coaching staff with an easy decision to make.
twitter: @raidersbeat
but does tafur know that today a franchise qb doesn’t get less than 50 million a year?!
If these are the parameters, that is exactly a reliable qb2 contract!