The Las Vegas Raiders will have a new quarterback under center in 2023, and it should be someone who is familiar with Josh McDaniels’s offense.
Now that the season has officially ended for the Las Vegas Raiders, the frenzy and craziness of the offseason begin. The Raiders currently sit with the number seven overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft with a lot of positions that could use top-tier talent. The biggest issues are anywhere on the defense that isn’t Maxx Crosby, the offensive line, and now potentially the quarterback.
That statement comes on the heels of the Raiders benching 9-year starter Derek Carr in order to protect their investment from injury and be able to see what they have in backup Jarrett Stidham, who was with Josh McDaniels in New England ever since he was drafted in 2019.
Stidham started his first-ever NFL game against the San Francisco 49ers in week 17 and had quite an amazing game, almost beating the best defense in the NFL. Ultimately, they ended up losing in overtime 37-34, but not to any fault of his own. Stidham threw for 365 yards, 3 touchdowns, and two interceptions while boasting a 115.3 QBR rating. His game against the Chiefs however provided quite the opposite stat line. He threw for just 72 yards, 0 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, and an 80.7 QBR rating.
One thing that stood out to me though with Stidham starting these last two games was that against the 49ers we saw what a Josh McDaniels system can be when you have the full playbook at your disposal. Against the 49ers he had 0 sacks and what seemed like all the time in the world to throw more often than not and against the Chiefs he was sacked 6 times. What that tells me is that with consistent protection and access to the full playbook, this offense can be successful more than we saw the 16 weeks prior to New Year’s Day. That’s why I believe someone who knows Josh Mcdaniels’ system fully will be in control of the offense next season.
Here are the options that Las Vegas can go with in order to make that happen for the 2023 NFL season.