What to do with Aidan O'Connell has been a talking point all offseason for Las Vegas Raiders fans, so surely, similar conversations are happening in the building. Seeing as he won't start right now and isn't the franchise guy, three realistic options are on the table: trade him, keep him or cut him.
Trading him seemed like a desirable option, as O'Connell is in the final year of his rookie deal, and he's likely to leave Las Vegas next offseason for a chance to start elsewhere. Plus, new potential suitors for him seem like they pop up every week, and the Raiders could get some compensation for him.
But O'Connell's performance during the Silver and Black's first preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals may have taken the best option off the table. For what is a tricky situation with the young quarterback, trading O'Connell was an awesome exit ramp for both sides. But now, they're off course.
Raiders' Aidan O'Connell may play himself out of being a trade option
Last Thursday, O'Connell completed just 4 of his 13 passes, albeit for 85 yards, and he took a 10-yard sack. He didn't throw a touchdown, but O'Connell also didn't cough the ball up by fumbling or tossing an interception. In a simple sense, it was just a plain old bad, ineffective outing for the veteran QB.
Worse than a few incompletions, though, was the fact that his unit just looked completely disjointed. Yes, there were a handful of drops, but that's because the timing was off, and after O'Connell practiced with the 3s all throughout training camp, there's really no reason for them to be so off-kilter.
O'Connell is heading into his fourth year in the NFL, and he has 17 starts under his belt. He's gone into Kansas City and beaten the Chiefs, helped hang 63 on the Los Angeles Chargers and also beat the Sean Payton-led Denver Broncos. O'Connell is supposed to dominate in these settings.
I know that he has a third-string offensive line and set of offensive weapons. But he's also playing against a group of defenders in which maybe only a handful of them will even be around the building in any capacity this time next month. He just had to play better than he did in preseason Week 1.
With him struggling, and other young quarterbacks around the league showing some stuff this preseason, it is becoming less and less likely that the Raiders will find a trade partner for O'Connell. It would have been the perfect option to go their separate ways, but he is playing himself out of that.
Widening the scope a bit, here are the stat sheets from the last few times that O'Connell took the field:
W1 Preseason vs. Cardinals, 2026: 4-13, 85 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT, 1 sack taken
W18 Regular Season vs. Chiefs, 2025: 10-22, 102 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT, 1 sack taken
W3 Preseason vs. Cardinals, 2025: 3-4, 36 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT, 1 sack taken
W2 Preseason vs. 49ers, 2025: 15-23, 138 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT, 2 sacks taken
W1 Preseason vs. Seahawks, 2025: 18-30, 205 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT, 0 sacks taken
Obviously, not great.
His experience is a good thing, and O'Connell has certainly put out some good film in this league. But the NFL is also very much a "what have you done for me lately?" kind of deal. And O'Connell hasn't done much for the Raiders lately, so other teams may have a hard time buying that he would for them.
Unless he balls out in the remaining two preseason games, or a team suddenly has a serious need for a quarterback, then Las Vegas is essentially stuck with two options: Keep him or cut him. Keeping him would mean taking up a roster spot that could be allocated elsewhere. And that may be a waste.
Cutting him may be seen as unwise, considering he'd probably be snatched up on the waiver wire immediately. But if a team isn't willing to send the Raiders a pick for him after a brutal stretch of performances, then there's not much that the Silver and Black can do.
It's not like fans want O'Connell gone necessarily, but his most valuable contribution to the team this year, in a real sense, was probably going to be fetching a Day 3 draft pick to grab another asset next April. If Kirk Cousins goes down, it's the Fernando Mendoza show. O'Connell isn't even QB2 anymore.
So, barring a big turnaround, Las Vegas will be facing a brutal decision on cutdown day. And while Klint Kubiak maintains his optimistic messaging about him, O'Connell has to prove that he's that guy on the field. He didn't do that in the opener, which is complicating things for the Raiders.
Let's hope they sort it out. O'Connell playing well would go a long way in that.
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