Beat Writer Thinks Raiders Have “Card Up Their Sleeve” with Aidan O’Connell on the 53-Man Roster

The Raiders caught a lot of people by surprise when they put Aidan O’Connell on the 53-man roster on Tuesday, and there still isn’t a lot of clarity on why they chose to do it.

O’Connell suffered a wrist injury in the final preseason game that will require surgery and most likely keep him off the field for 6 to 8 weeks. But for reasons that no one seems to know, the Raiders didn’t stash O’Connell on injured reserve and, instead, put him on the active roster.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vinny Bonsignore talked about the O’Connell situation on Wednesday, and he thinks the Raiders have some kind of trick up their sleeve.

“It’s still interesting to me because they still could have just put [O’Connell] on the injured reserve list, carry somebody else, a younger player, a Tommy Mellott [or] a Cam Miller,” Bonsignore said on Raider Nation Radio’s Morning Tailgate.

“Both of those guys got waived and they chose to use that spot for Aiden O’Connell. They’ve got some kind of card up their sleeve with Aiden O’Connell. I’m curious to see what that is.”

Bonsignore didn’t offer any outside-of-the-box theories to why O’Connell would be on the initial roster, and it’s going to be interesting to see how the situation shakes out.

It’s possible that O’Connell’s injury isn’t as bad as initially reported, but if that’s not the case, there aren’t many obvious advantages to allowing him to take up an active roster space.

Maybe one is going to show up soon?

x: @raidersbeat

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