Report Says Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler Were at Odds on the Top Quarterback in the 2023 Draft

The more we learn about Josh McDaniels, the more we learn that he probably should have listened more often to his personnel department.

We know that McDaniels was warned about Chandler Jones and a report this week indicated that former GM Dave Ziegler was adamantly against signing Jimmy Garoppolo.

Now it turns out that Ziegler and McDaniels had different ideas on the top quarterback in the 2023 draft. One liked Bryce Young and the other liked C.J. Stroud.

“Josh McDaniels was the decision maker and he was willing to [trade] for Bryce Young,” Hondo said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast.

“The interesting part was Dave Ziegler, the General Manager, thought height [and] durability were issues with Bryce. He liked him as a player and liked him as a guy, but didn’t think he was worthy there. He wanted to go up and get C.J. Stroud.”

As it turned out, the Raiders didn’t want to pay the price to move up in the draft, so they never had an opportunity to make a decision on the top-rated quarterbacks in the draft.

In hindsight, if the Raiders had not structured Derek Carr’s contract extension the way they did, they might have been able to get a first-round pick for him prior to the draft. Another premium pick at their disposal would have given McDaniels and Ziegler enough ammunition to move up to the first pick… and apparently draft Bryce Young.

twitter: @raidersbeat

Share:

3 thoughts on “Report Says Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler Were at Odds on the Top Quarterback in the 2023 Draft

  1. Stroud is showing why he should have been #1. Not knocking Young, but they’re both on bad teams and Stroud is elevating the Texans and Young is not. Clearly JMD made too many mistakes and should have allowed the talent people do their jobs instead of being stubborn. Where could the Raiders be if they had CJ?

    1. Same place. The O-line was still terrible. I firmly believe McDaniels would have ruined either one of those young men. Kinda glad it didn’t happen. Jimmy may be physically fragile, but he’s been around the game long enough to be able to survive this, even if it’s only as a backup from this point on.

Comments are closed.