Getty Las Vegas Raiders QB Aidan O'Connell.
Things have gotten a lot lighter around the Las Vegas Raiders since the firing of head coach Josh McDaniels. Players appear to be much happier and comfortable with interim head coach Antonio Pierce now in charge.
One player who is noticeably more comfortable is rookie quarterback Aidan O’Connell, who was named the starter after the McDaniels news broke. Reporters noticed a funny exchange between O’Connell and star wide receiver Davante Adams.
“You heading to the podium?” Adams asked O’Connell prior to his November 15 media availability, per Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“Yup,” O’Connell responded. “I’ve got a pretty easy act to follow.”
Adams spoke about how much more confident O’Connell has gotten around the team in recent weeks.
“It’s always funny coming in, and you see the young guys come in, and they come and play with me, whether it’s D-lineman or whatever, they always look a little different at me when they’re walking through the hallways,” Adams said. “And he’d been like that for a while.”
Adams even brought up another instance where O’Connell poked fun at him.
“I was making sure I didn’t have nothing on my face, and he’s walking by talking, saying that I don’t look good in the mirror,” Adams said.
While Adams is a team captain and a veteran, he doesn’t take offense to O’Connell taking playful shots at him.
“Stuff like that is where you start to take the next steps in your friendship to allow you to have a better connection on the field,” Adams said.
Aidan O’Connell Talks Relationship With Davante Adams
The relationship between a quarterback and a star wide receiver is very important for an offense. Aidan O’Connell wasn’t the starting quarterback in training camp so he didn’t have a ton of time to build a rapport with Davante Adams.
However, they’ve been developing a relationship all season and O’Connell has a ton of respect for Adams despite the fact he likes to poke fun at him.
“He’s down to earth, and I obviously watched him a lot growing up,” O’Connell said. “It’s cool to form that friendship a little bit. I got to make fun of him a little bit, and he’s obviously a very good player. I guess my job is to bring him back down to earth a couple of times, even if that’s not my job. But, no, he’s just a great guy.
“He was one of the early guys to welcome me in to make me feel welcome here, so he’s been a huge part of my development.”
Could Aidan O’Connell Be a Long-Term Starting QB?
Aidan O’Connell’s stats this season aren’t overly impressive. He has 675 passing yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions. However, he clearly has the confidence of the team and is 2-1 in three starts.
O’Connell’s upside is limited. He’s got a solid arm and is very accurate but he’s not athletic compared to today’s quarterbacks. It’s hard to know right now if he really has a shot at being the Raiders’ starting quarterback long-term.
There are still seven games left in the regular season to prove that he deserves a chance but with the 2024 draft class featuring a number of high-profile quarterback prospects, O’Connell needs to show a lot.