QB Aidan O’Connell’s surge is putting Raiders’ draft plans in strange spot​on January 4, 2025 at 6:17 pm

HENDERSON, Nev. — Aidan O’Connell has seen this movie before. In fact, he starred in it.

So forgive the second-year quarterback if déjà vu has him feeling a certain way, as O’Connell and the Las Vegas Raiders (4-12) head into Sunday’s season finale against the playoff-bound Los Angeles Chargers (10-6), who are playing their best football of the season.

Especially with O’Connell’s efficient play essentially knocking the Raiders out of a draft slot that would have allowed them to select a quarterback of their choosing, without having to trade up.

Last year, O’Connell threw eight touchdown passes without an interception in the Raiders’ final four games; Las Vegas went 3-1 in that stretch.

Now, with the Raiders riding a season-best two-game winning streak, after they had dropped 10 straight, O’Connell has two TDs without a pick while completing 60.3% of his passes in those wins, against the Jacksonville Jaguars and New Orleans Saints.

Too little, too late?

“Unfortunately, we continue to talk about that skid,” O’Connell said Wednesday. “It was not ideal. … It’s frustrating, but at the same time you try to enjoy the wins when you have them and you realize, as I continue to say, how hard it is to win and just try to move on after the win. Celebrate and then get to the next game and do it again.”

Plus, it’s the first time this season the Raiders have gone two straight games without turning the ball over.

“It’s obviously tangible evidence, showing how important it is,” O’Connell said. “It’s not unique to our team. It’s really every team, and I think there probably isn’t a coach out there at any level that’s not preaching about the turnover margin and protecting the football.”

It’s also what Raiders coach Antonio Pierce preached throughout the offseason program, training camp and the entirety of the season.

Bittersweet might be the best way to describe the Raiders’ recent run of success, right?

Again, kind of like the end of last season.

Going 5-4 down the stretch, including 3-1 in the AFC West, with O’Connell at the helm, not only helped Pierce get elevated from interim coach, it kept the Raiders out of prime position to draft a quarterback.

Six QBs were selected in the first 12 selections (Las Vegas picked at No. 13 and got quite the consolation prize in tight end Brock Bowers).

O’Connell was beaten out by free agent signee Gardner Minshew, who inked a two-year, $25 million deal with $15 million guaranteed, in a training camp battle.

But Minshew was alternately injured and ineffective before suffering a season-ending broken collarbone on Nov. 24.

O’Connell, too, went on injured reserve for four games with a broken thumb on his right (passing) hand Oct. 20.

And after returning, he suffered what appeared to be a season-ending injury at Tampa Bay on Dec. 8, when he was carted off the field while wearing an air cast on his left leg.

A bone bruise on his knee sidelined him for just one game — Desmond Ridder started against the Atlanta Falcons — and with O’Connell returning, and the defense stiffening up, the Raiders have not lost since.

“Go back to the quarterback competition in the spring and training camp,” Pierce said. “I thought he handled it like a pro. He was always ready to go.

“He’s just a resilient player. It’s kind of like what we saw last year — the more reps he gets, the more opportunities he gets, he makes the most out of them. And like I said, whenever he protects the football, he puts us all in a better position.”

As a rookie, O’Connell started 10 of the 11 games in which he played, going 5-5 as the starter. He passed for 2,218 yards while completing 62.1% of his passes with 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions for a passer rating of 83.9, a QBR of 40.5.

This season, he has started six of the eight games he appeared in, going 2-4, while passing for 1,398 yards and completing 62.2% of his throws with six touchdowns and three interceptions. He has a passer rating of 85.4 and a QBR of 50.6.

Hollywood will tell you very few sequels are as good as the original, especially if the storylines are so similar.

And yet, Pierce was succinct when asked if O’Connell had shown him enough this season that he would be comfortable moving into next season with him as his starting quarterback.

“Yeah,” Pierce said, “I think Aidan O’Connell would be a starting NFL quarterback.”

It will be one of the more pressing issues for the Raiders this offseason: Do they try to move up in the draft to find that elusive, young, franchise-type QB? Or do they simply roll with O’Connell and build around him?

It’s the same dilemma Las Vegas found itself in last offseason, when the prevailing narrative was Jayden Daniels or bust.

Because two weeks ago, the Raiders had the inside track on the No. 1 pick. Shedeur Sanders, anyone? Cam Ward to the Silver and Black courtesy phone?

O’Connell now has Las Vegas projected to have the No. 9 pick. And even if new Raiders minority owner Tom Brady, who already has a well-established relationship with Sanders, has the juice in the organization to decree a move up in the draft, it will be expensive.

And O’Connell, from a certain point of view, helped drive that price up.

“It’s the end of my second year now and so I haven’t been around for too long, but definitely any reps you can get — I talk about it a lot — being able to even bank those throughout the week, I think are super valuable,” O’Connell said.

“And then any game experience I can get is super valuable. So I’m trying to take advantage of every rep, every situation and learn from them. Success, failure, put them in the bank and just try to grow.”