The story of the Raiders’ 2024 season has been a sad one, and arguably the most disappointing player on the roster this year has been Gardner Minshew.
Minshew signed a two-year, $25 million contract with the Raiders in March and some thought his deal was going to end up being one of the steals of free agency.
Throughout his NFL career, Minshew has been a marginally above average quarterback, but was never given a real opportunity to be a starting quarterback. Going into this year, Minshew had thrown 59 touchdowns and only 24 interceptions in five NFL seasons.
A respectable stat line, for sure.
The Raiders were hopeful that pairing Minshew with Davante Adams and Brock Bowers would lead to a career year for the veteran quarterback, but that hasn’t happened and it isn’t going to happen. Minshew left Sunday’s game against the Broncos with a broken collarbone, and he won’t play again this year.
A lot went wrong for the Raiders this year, but it would be interesting to know what specifically went wrong for Minshew.
How did he turn into a below average quarterback nearly overnight?
The Athletic’s Vic Tafur hit on that question this week.
“I don’t know what happened to Gardner Minshew, but this year, clearly, he’s not the same guy the Raiders thought they were getting when they watched a film from the previous year,” Tafur said on the Just Win podcast.
“Something happened. I don’t know what. That’s a great mystery,” Tafur continued. “But clearly, this year’s version of Gardner Minshew is definitely worse than Aidan McConnell. There’s no question.”
Considering just about every offensive player on the roster has performed below expectations this year, it seems reasonable to believe the coaching staff deserves a lot of the blame.
Antonio Pierce made the decision to fire offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and two position coaches prior to the bye week, but it’s not easy to make major offensive adjustments at this late stage in the season.
The offense has shown signs of life under interim offensive coordinator Scott Turner (above) and the Raiders will need a season-best effort from the offense if they want to hang with the Chiefs at Arrowhead on Friday.
With Minshew now out for the season, it will be interesting to see if Aidan O’Connell can jumpstart the offense after missing the last four games with a fractured thumb.
x: @raidersbeat
He lost a great deal of substance between his ears between Indy and Vegas. But the lack of performance from OL pushed what was left out. I was one who watched him in Indy and was stoked he came here.. I was also glad he’s made AP’s decision for him going forward
There is lots of blame to be placed upon several people n areas. However, it is not difficult to understand that no QB would have a good season playing behind one of if not the weakest offensive line in football. The line cannot run or pass block. That said I believe Getsy was a terrible fit for us and should not be an OC.
The large amount of blame has to lay upon the feet of the worst owner in history of NFL – Davis. Unfortunately it appears his horrible decision making will continue and continue to cost the team n us fans further frustration n woes.
One of the main reasons Minshew struggled was Davante Adams. Adams never accepted Minshew and wanted a top draft pick of at least AOC. Adams missed preseason games and practice. It Appears Adams missed 2 routes which cost a fumble in game one and an interception in game 3. I have watched Minshew in the past and don’t recall him missing routes like that. Minshew is more of a team player that utilizes the whole team. Raiders coaching is terrible, no running game, offensive line. Minshew was playing better the last 3 games especially with the new offensive Co-ordinator. raiders don’t seem to have fans at the games and the fan support for Minshew was very bad.
Spot on. They knew going into season they had qb issues, JustinFields would have been the best option. But…….I like/ed AP, unfortunately I’m seeing ng a 1 and Done
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