Former All-Pro WR Suggests That $72 Million Star Could Be Benched by Raiders

With so many new pieces on the Las Vegas Raiders roster this season, it’s hard to get a grasp of just how good they could be. A team doesn’t give a veteran quarterback like Jimmy Garoppolo a $72.75 million contract if they don’t think they can at least be competitive.

However, if things get ugly early for the Raiders, they’ll have some decisions to make. Rookie fourth-round pick Aidan O’Connell looked very impressive in the preseason but has yet to get the chance to play against top competition. Former All-Pro wide receiver turned NFL Network analyst Steve Smith Sr. seems to believe there’s a chance the Raiders will replace Garoppolo with O’Connell during the 2023 season.

“Will this be two years in a row that Jimmy Garoppolo loses his starting job to a rookie?” Smith said when asked to make a bold prediction for the 2023 season on a September 1 episode of “NFL Total Access.”

It’s difficult to see a scenario where Garoppolo is benched in favor of O’Connell unless there’s an injury involved. The Raiders would need to get off to a very poor start for the team to consider making that move.

Aidan O’Connell Named Preseason Winner

There were seven quarterbacks taken before Aidan O’Connell in the 2023 NFL Draft so there weren’t many expectations for him heading into his rookie season. Despite that, he was arguably the best quarterback in the preseason this year and Pro Football Focus’ Sam Monson named him as one of the biggest winners of the preseason.

“No one improved their stock as much as rookie quarterback Aidan O’Connell, who put together one of the best preseasons in the NFL,” Monson wrote in an August 30 column. “He finished with an 89.5 PFF grade and had 64 dropbacks across three games in which he saw significant time.

“He didn’t make a single turnover-worthy play across those three games, something that blighted his college tape. The Raiders probably weren’t expecting much out of the fourth-rounder, but they are going to have to sit up and pay attention to him now as he enters the season as the third quarterback on the roster.”

Early signs are good for O’Connell and unless Jimmy Garoppolo gets hurt this season, he should have plenty of time to develop before he has to take snaps against regular season opponents.

Pumps the Breaks on Aidan O’Connell

While Aidan O’Connell was very impressive in the preseason, the hype train for him should slow down. There have been plenty of great preseason performers who didn’t do much in the NFL. O’Connell’s 108.4 passer rating in the preseason, is the 12th-best since 2015 by a quarterback who threw 50+ passes but there are a lot of non-starters on the list outside of Dak Prescott and Patrick Mahomes, per Josh Dubow of the Associated Press.

Excellence in the preseason rarely translates to excellence in the regular season. That said, O’Connell could still be a very good player but before he supplants Jimmy Garoppolo as the starting quarterback, he needs some regular season reps. It’s possible that he could be the starting quarterback of the future for the Raiders but he still has to show more before that decision is made.