Anyone who watched the Las Vegas Raiders last season may have come away from the game feeling like the team had no long-term solution at the quarterback position.
Struggling is one thing, especially for a young player who has upside, but that does not accurately describe the situation that Las Vegas found themselves in last year. Gardner Minshew and Aidan O'Connell were both disastrous under center and there is an argument to be made that neither should be on the roster next season despite them both being under contract.
New general manager John Spytek does not necessarily buy that argument. While he did say that the team was going to seek out other quarterbacks this offseason, he did not rule out the two who were on the roster in 2024.
"Every and any avenue where we can find a quarterback, we're going to explore," said Spytek. "We have some guys in the building that we want to give a chance to compete."
Perhaps this is just how general managers speak to the media because they do not want to tip their hand about the team's plans. But this sentiment was echoed by new head coach Pete Carroll, which gave the notion even more validity.
"The quarterback position is going to be widely contested," said Carroll. "We have some guys on our roster who are fighting their tails off and we’re going to give them an opportunity.”
The mantra of the Pete Caroll-John Spytek era so far has been "Compete." While that is generally a good way to run a football team, I would venture to guess that every franchise would rather not have a quarterback competition in the preseason.
Las Vegas had a quarterback battle before last season, and the results were disastrous for the franchise. Players like Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson are not battling for their spot every year because they are established players. This is the kind of talent you want under center.
In all reality, Carroll and Spytek are just trying to get their message across to the team and not ruffle any feathers in their first month as head coach and general manager. Trust should remain high in these two as their track records would indicate that they can bring success to Las Vegas.
But if Gardner Minshew is in the discussion for the team's starting quarterback next season, that trust will fizzle away in a hurry.