The Las Vegas Raiders are at a bit of a fork in the road.
Sure, the hiring of Antonio Pierce as permanent head coach has done a lot to boost morale around the team. But the patience the hire has bought will soon run out if results aren’t produced on the field.
After all, the Raiders have talent … Don’t get me wrong, they’re not the 49ers or anything, but they do have talent.
Having said that, they clearly need to address their quarterback situation.
Aidan O’Connell flashed at times last season, but most people don’t consider him to be a long-term answer at the position.
Meanwhile, they did sign the ultra-popular Gardner Minshew in free agency. While he may have a ceiling as a quarterback, he has proven to be more than capable of leading a team on a playoff run as he’s done multiple times already.
But in the big picture, they need a long-term answer at the position. They need a true franchise quarterback.
Sitting with the #13 overall pick in next week’s draft, the Raiders are expected to deeply explore their options.
They could certainly trade up to snag one of the top QB’s, or they could sit tight and see if anyone falls to them.
According to Tony Pauline of SportsKeeda, Pierce and general manager Tom Telesco aren’t on the same page when it comes to addressing the position.
“There’s also been talk about the Las Vegas Raiders wanting to move up for a quarterback. The latest completely from Raiders draft meetings is that head coach Antonio Pierce wants to trade up for a signal caller, yet general manager Tom Telesco is leaning heavily toward sticking with second-year quarterback Aidan O’Connell and free-agent signing Gardner Minshew,” Pauline reported.
Pierce is said to be very interested in LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels. He knows the Heisman Trophy winner very well from their time together at Arizona State before Daniels transferred to the Tigers.
Of course, for Vegas to draft Daniels, they would need to trade up significantly … That type of jump may be too costly for Telesco to seriously consider.
Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it), the Raiders may be able to sit tight and draft their guy at #13 after all.
According to The Athletic, Vegas is reportedly very interested in Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr.
Even though many people feel he’s more of a late-first round talent, the Raiders think highly enough of him that they may just “overdraft” him at #13 rather than trying to get cute by trading down and risk having another team snag him.
According to Draft Kings, the odds of the Raiders drafting Penix stand at -260.
In other words, there seems to be plenty of believers that the former Huskies star will be soon wearing the Silver and Black.
Former Raiders executive Michael Lombardi even said that if owner Al Davis was still alive it would be an absolute certainty that he’d draft Penix.
There was nothing that Davis loved more than a strong-armed quarterback who could virtually throw the ball out of the stadium.
Penix certainly has his flaws, but the one thing he can surely do is chuck the ball deep.
What are your thoughts on the report?
What should the Raiders do in the draft?
Should they trade up for Daniels? … Should they sit tight and pick Penix? …Or should they just roll the dice with what they have?
What do you think ends up happening???