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Aidan O’Connell’s first preseason game against the San Francisco 49ers doesn’t appear to be a fluke. The Las Vegas Raiders rookie followed up his impressive debut with a strong performance against the Los Angeles Rams where he completed 11-of-18 passes for 163 yards and two touchdowns.
Despite the fact that he’s only been in the NFL for a short time, O’Connell has already become an internet meme on social media. Many fans have pointed out his resemblance to Kevin Heffernan’s character Trooper Rodney Farva from the 2001 cult classic comedy “Super Troopers.”
This comparison has been making the rounds since before he was drafted but O’Connell wasn’t aware of the fact that he’s a meme.
“Oh God, what did I do?” O’Connell said when asked if he was aware that he had become an internet meme, per an August 19 Twitter post from 8 News Now’s Logan Reever.
As long as O’Connell keeps the mustache, he’s likely to keep getting compared to Farva. That said, if he keeps playing at a high level, it’ll become much more difficult to make jokes about him.
Josh McDaniels Talks Performance of Rookies
The second Raiders preseason games saw most of their starters suit up. Even star wide receiver Davanate Adams played a snap. While the starters weren’t in there for long, there was still plenty of time for younger players to get some snaps.
Head coach Josh McDaniels discussed some of the rookies who saw heavy minutes against the Rams.
“I mean, I’m very interested in watching all of our young players,” McDaniels said during his August 19 postgame media availability, “because, I mean, this is a great opportunity for all of those guys in joint practices and in preseason games to really go out there and compete, but also improve. A lot of these things that they’re doing and/or seeing are the first time they’re doing it. Tre Tucker, handful of things today. Same thing with Aidan [O’Connell], Chris Smith, [Amari] Burney. There’s a number of guys that are out there doing things, and they’re seeing things for the first time.
“So, that game experience, the live reps against somebody that – you don’t know what they’re going to do. You’re not sure exactly how that’s going to go from snap to snap. It’s all positive for us in terms of getting those guys an opportunity to work and take repetition. So, they’ll either do the right thing or learn from the mistake.”
Many young players won’t see the field as much during the regular season so this is the best time of year for them to see some game action.
Aidan O’Connell Making Case to Be Jimmy Garoppolo’s Backup
The Raiders may have a quarterback controversy brewing for who will be Jimmy Garoppolo’s backup. Brian Hoyer has been the No. 2 quarterback all offseason but he was outplayed by Aidan O’Connell against the Rams. Hoyer completed 12-of-22 passes for 144 yards. He also threw a really ugly pick-six.
Hoyer is entering his 15th year in the NFL while O’Connell is still a rookie. There’s still a lot that needs to happen for the Raiders to fully trust O’Connell. That said, there’s no denying his upside is much higher than Hoyer’s, who hasn’t won a start since 2016.
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