Aidan O'Connell

The Athletic’s Tashan Reed says Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew “split snaps with the starters during offseason team activities and will continue to do so when training camp begins.”

According to Reed, both O’Connell and Minshew “got off to a rough start in OTAs,” struggling with accuracy and turnovers while offering little in the way of a vertical passing game. Given the profiles of both quarterbacks and what we saw last year, this isn’t all that surprising, as O’Connell and Minshew ranked 17th and 20th in ADOT last season amongst 30 quarterbacks (min. 300 dropbacks). It was reported in June by ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler that O’Connell “probably has the slight edge” over Minshew in the Raiders’ quarterback competition, but that’s to be expected with O’Connell being the incumbent to the newly-signed Minshew. Both quarterbacks are serviceable starters, but neither should be viewed as a long-term answer at the position. Barring an unexpected breakout from either signal-caller, Reed notes that “it wouldn’t be a surprise if both Minshew and O’Connell take the field at some point this year.”