Entering the Las Vegas Raiders’ pre-season, head coach Antonio Pierce made it clear that the team’s starting quarterback for 2024 would be a decision made following evaluation of incumbent Aidan O’Connell and free agent signing Gardner Minshew.  After the 2nd pre-season game, Pierce announced that the Game 1 starter would be Minshew.

Minshew has been a career backup and consistently ranks in the bottom 3rd of QB play, but he did manage a winning record with the Indianapolis Colts as a fill-in starter for the injured Anthony Richardson. O’Connell also was a game over .500 after being named the starter to finish the 2023 season in week 9, replacing Jimmy Garoppolo, and was the only QB in the NFL without a turnover in the final 4 weeks of the season.

Minshew has a very generous ranking by Player Profiler as QB21 and actually did have two top 10 finishes in 2023. His 8 finishes outside of the top 20, however, allude to a QB who shouldn’t be seen as more than an emergency starter in the deepest of leagues.