Raiders' Aidan O'Connell: Loses out on starting job

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Raiders coach Antonio Pierce announced Sunday that Gardner Minshew will be the team's starting quarterback over O'Connell to begin the 2024 season, Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com reports.

Pierce added during Sunday morning's press conference that experience was ultimately the team's deciding factor, stating that they "feel like [Minshew] gives us the best opportunity to get off to a fast start," according to Tashan Reed and Vic Tafur of The Athletic. O'Connell has more experience with the Raiders, starting 10 games with a 5-5 record and a 12:7 TD:INT during his 2023 rookie season. However, that falls short of the 37 career starts for Minshew, who also was named to his first career Pro Bowl with the Colts last year. It was clearly still a tight race for the job this preseason. O'Connell performed relatively well while coming in off the bench in the first two exhibitions, completing 21 of 29 combined passing attempts for 176 yards, one touchdown and one interception. It's also not out of the question that O'Connell could have a chance to start this season if Minshew and the Raiders offense struggles throughout the campaign. Therefore, it will be worth monitoring how the team performs in the regular-season opener versus the Chargers on Sunday, Sept. 8.