The Las Vegas Raiders haven’t even started training camp yet but there’s momentum building for Aidan O’Connell to win the starting quarterback battle. The team signed Gardner Minshew in free agency to compete with O’Connell and he may not be showing enough to beat out the second-year pro.
What’s going to help O’Connell is that he has a team captain on his side. Wide receiver Davante Adams recently revealed who he believes has the edge for the starting quarterback job right now.
“I think right now if I had to say, I think Aidan has the job,” Adams said on the July 9 episode of “Speak.” “At the end of the day, I don’t have a preference other than the fact that I want somebody that’s confident and ready to go when it’s time to do it. So, whoever that is, that’s who I want throwing the ball.
“We still gotta keep working and do what we’ve got to do to grow and get better. We can definitely get better than where we are. … Even me, at this point in the year this is not where you are gonna show your best. So throughout camp when we really start throwing the pads on, and doing the real deal, I think that’s when we’ll be able to decide who the guy will be, and I’ll continue working to get that camaraderie with that person.”
Adams has more experience with O’Connell so it’s not a surprise that he’d prefer him early on. Training camp and preseason will give the team as a whole a much better idea of who will be the starting quarterback.
Gardner Minshew Still Has Time
One thing that could give Minshew an edge over O’Connell is that he’s been here a number of times before. He’s got a four-season advantage over O’Connell and he’s new to the team. It makes sense that O’Connell would look better at first considering he played with many of the same players last season.
Minshew is in a totally new situation so he’s got more to prove. Until the pads get on, it’s going to be difficult for the Raiders to make any definitive decisions.
Davante Adams Says He’s a ‘Generational Talent’
Adams spent the first eight years of his career catching passes from future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers. It’s difficult to get full credit as a wide receiver when you have one of the greatest quarterbacks ever so that was a factor as to why he decided to go to the Raiders two years ago.
“I’d like to think that I’m a very direct person,” Adams said. “I was definitely not trying to throw a hint at anything. It was direct. Having a quarterback like Aaron Rodgers, obviously that’s gonna help anybody. … But as you saw with that next season, everybody thought that ‘Maybe he’s just a product of Aaron Rodgers’, and that was just me saying I’m absolutely not that. I am my own player. I’m a generational talent, and I take a tremendous amount of pride in what I do, which is what led my being the player that I am.”
Adams is 12th all-time in receiving touchdowns and should continue to move up the charts before he retires so there’s definitely merit to his claim that he’s a generational talent.
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