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It could be argued that the Las Vegas Raiders haven’t had a star quarterback in their true prime since Ken Stabler in the 1970s. Yes, Rich Gannon was fantastic, but that was in the back half of his career.
When you’re going to be in a division with Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, you’re going to need a quarterback that can go head-to-head with those two guys.
Simply put, the stopgap solutions at the quarterback position for the Raiders have not worked. They did think for a few seasons that they had a long-term franchise quarterback in Derek Carr. But, even though he had some very good years, he wasn’t their long-term solution.
The team acquired Jimmy Garoppolo from the San Francisco 49ers prior to last season. But, again, he was merely a stopgap solution. It didn’t work, and he became part of the roughly two-dozen Raiders starting quarterbacks to not be the franchise guy since 2003.
Rookie fourth-rounder Aidan O’Connell showed flashes of being a bottom-half starter in his career last year. But, I don’t think that’s the type of guy who they would be confident in going toe-to-toe with Mahomes and Herbert two times a year each.
The Raiders pick 13th in April’s draft. That means, they could either hope one of their preferred quarterbacks fall to them, or trade up to go get
Antonio Pierce served as the team’s interim coach last year before getting promoted to the full-time gig. He knows that the team needs a long-term answer at quarterback, and spoke about that prior to this week’s combine. their guy.
Here’s The Athletic with more.
“I would hope whoever we draft, that’s the route we go, that’s who the starter becomes,” Pierce said. “You don’t want to put a Band-Aid at that position. That’s old … that’s old, man. I think the Raiders … we’ve seen that enough in this organization.”
It’s likely that Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, and Jalen Daniels will be off the board by then. So, they will likely have to trade up to get one of those guys. But, if they like someone like Michigan’s JJ McCarthy, Oregon’s Bo Nix, or Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., they may be there at the thirteenth pick.