Things are looking up for the Las Vegas Raiders under new head coach Pete Carroll but the team isn’t going to go far without an upgrade at quarterback. The team tried and failed to trade for Matthew Stafford and there aren’t many great options out there.
This could lead to the Raiders evaluating one of the more polarizing quarterbacks available. Aaron Rodgers is destined for the Hall of Fame and will be a free agent this offseason. Las Vegas hasn’t seemed to show much interest but defensive end Maxx Crosby recently stated that he’s hoping the team signs him.
Dan Pizzuta of The 33rd Team recently predicted that the Raiders will sign Rodgers and pair him with a rookie.
“After the Raiders pushed hard for Stafford — with a might-or-might-not-have-been-purposeful meeting between the quarterback and Tom Brady in Montana — Rodgers could be a natural pivot option for Las Vegas,” Pizzuta wrote in a March 4 column. “With the game of quarterback musical chairs playing out, this could be one of very few options for Rodgers.
“Pete Carroll has enough juice as a head coach that whatever comes with Rodgers could be handled and the 41-year-old quarterback could fit with in Chip Kelly’s offense. Rodgers wants to live in shotgun and get the ball out quickly, two things likely to mesh with Kelly’s offense. Now Kelly has gone hurry up often and would likely want to continue to do so and there could be some compromise in the pace to the line and how Rodgers wants to control the line of scrimmage once he gets there.”
Raiders Could Pair Rodgers With Shedeur Sanders
Rodgers isn’t that appealing for the Raiders in a vacuum. However, pairing him with a rookie makes some sense. Part of Pizzuta’s Rodgers prediction also included the team drafting Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders.
“Signing Rodgers could give the Raiders a veteran option while they hope to find something in the draft,” Pizzuta wrote. “Reports suggest there is a widening gap between Ward and Sanders after the NFL Combine. Sanders isn’t the type of quarterback who would usually need to sit but learning from Rodgers in this type of offense could be beneficial.
“Sanders used a high rate of early down passes at or behind the line of scrimmage (his 41.2 percent rate was the second-highest among all 119 qualified college quarterbacks, per TruMedia) and throwing him in a Kelly offense behind Rodgers could allow him to learn how to make the best use of those plays while opening up more plays off them.”
Would Sanders & Rodgers Pairing Work?
Putting Sanders and Rodgers together would be very interesting. Both quarterbacks are massive stars and a lot of fans don’t like them for their personalities. Rodgers may be able to relate to the amount of scrutiny that Sanders has gone through.
He was once supposed to be a top-five pick quarterback who fell to the back half of the second round during the pre-draft process. Sanders is also such a big name that it’ll be hard to sit him behind a veteran who doesn’t have the accolades that Rodgers does. If the Raiders do plan to go after Sanders but don’t want him to start as a rookie, Rodgers actually would make some sense.
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