The Raiders are preparing for their final game of the preseason, and the expectation is that most, if not all of the team’s key players won’t see the field this weekend.
It’s been an interesting month for the Raiders and Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter was asked this week if he felt the team was better than it was at the start of training camp.
The answer he gave on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast was interesting…
“I’m going to give you an answer that is going to sound political, but it’s not,” Hondo said. “I’m not sure. I’m not sure for a couple of reasons. I’m going to wait and get into [that] the week before the first game of the season.”
Hondo said he likes the defense even more than he did a year ago. He said he likes the special teams group and he likes the offensive scheme. He also said he likes the playmakers on the roster.
And those statements beg the obvious question… what does he not feel good about?
“At this point, I want to see more from the Raiders quarterbacks. Both of them,” Hondo said.
He added earlier in the podcast that Gardner Minshew “didn’t have his best practice” on Tuesday, and it’s at least a little concerning that the quarterback position isn’t in a better place than it appears to be at the moment.
Given the fact that many around the team expected Aidan O’Connell to be named the starting quarterback, it will be interesting to see how patient the Raiders will be with Minshew.
All that being the case, there are still good reasons to be enthusiastic about Minshew and a few of those reasons were outlined earlier this week.
x: @raidersbeat
A lot of us are so tired of Hondo’s Aiden obsession. We need at least one unbiased “insider” who is a Raider insider, not a player insider. It’s like they are actually just sports influencers posing as insiders. We all knew that if Minshew was chosen he would continue to push his Aiden agenda and write stories and posts the try to diminish Minshew. It’s enough already. We know your opinion Hondo. He needs to get over it and people need to start showing support to the Raiders as a team. Your opinion is has been heard. Move on. Not all of Raider Nation shares it. I would say the larger majority preferred Minshew. Media likes to make it appear that the fan base doesn’t support or want Minshew. That is far from the truth. Aiden is not ready. He was the qb3 thrown into qb1 until we could replace him. He did improve and did get promoted to qb2.
The Raiders need to make some decisions and fans need to try and not be so into pre season stats and hype. Sometimes guys look like stars and do well in the pre-season but don’t make the team. Sometimes a team embarrasses itself and waives a very good player but mostly they’ll waive a guy who played well in the pre-season because they think he can’t do those things in real games. There’s been some good and bad players and the Raiders have to decide who can help the team win who is really good or just look good and who is really bad or if they should give him another chance. NFL teams have to make decisions on who to keep and who to let go.
They need to decide on the WR unit- Do they think D.J. Turner is the guy or McAllister is their man? I like both guys D.J. Turner has worked hard and keeps making the team and McAllister has been huge pre-season star. Both are playing well
I think they should trade D.J. Turner! some team with injuries may take him for special teams and back up WR help. McAllister is a RB/ WR and might be able to play both. He can play special teams and if this guy could play RB in some sets and then as a WR in others. D.J. Turner is a good player and could help a team and who knows land on a better team and get a chance to play more but I think McAllister is the best bet to help the Raiders this year.