
Many fans satisfied with Year 2 growth from quarterback
Aidan O’Connell probably won’t be the Las Vegas Raiders’ starting quarterback in 2025.
The new regime will likely look to upgrade either in the draft, free agency or the draft from O’Connell.
Still, if O’Connell is given the chance to compete for the Raiders’ starting job in 2025, some fans seemingly would be fine with it.
We recently asked our readers if they felt they saw improvement from the fourth-round pick in the 2023 draft in his second NFL season. The majority of the voters though that, indeed, the Purdue product showed growth in the 2024 season.
In a poll 889 votes cast, 502 voters (56 percent) believe O’Connell improved in 2024, while 387 votes (44 percent) didn’t see improvement from O’Connell.
He lost a training-camp battle with free-agent addition Gardner Minshew (his coach Antonio Pierce last after the season that he regretted that decision). O’Connell then won the job back and was twice injured.
He played in nine games with seven starts. He completed 154 passes of 243 pass attempts (63.4 percent) for 1,612 yards with eight touchdown passes and four interceptions. In 2023, O’Connell played in 11 games, starting 10. He completed 213 passes on 343 pass attempts (62.1 percent) for 2,218 yards with 12 touchdown passes with seven interceptions.
O’Connell was 2-5 as a starter in 2024 after going 5-5 in his starts as a rookie.
O’Connell missed four games in 2024 with a broken thumb and then missed a game with a knee injury. He was banged up in Week 18, but returned.
In the end, O’Connell was better than Minshew as a starter. But he was serviceable at best. He made some mistakes and had plenty of misfires and he isn’t mobile in my opinion.
While I didn’t see great improvement, many fans did. The key is to see what the new regime thinks as it pertains to O’Connell’s 2025 season.