The Las Vegas Raiders have their starting back for now and this will only be the second time in his career that Gardner Minshew has been a Week 1 starter. It was a tight battle with Aidan O'Connell but experience won out in the end.
Minshew is now the man in charge and controls his own destiny. He's thrilled about the opportunity.
“Couldn’t be more excited. Everyone in this locker room feels how special we can be," Minshew said during his Tuesday press conference. "My role in this offense is to make good decisions — we have guys that are going to get open. I just have to get them the ball and play point guard.”
While Minshew is now the starter, he didn't win the battle due to his excellent play. He's struggled to be consistent throughout much of training camp and the preseason. He understands that he needs to improve his play if the team is going to win games.
"I think anytime you step in there as a quarterback, whatever the situation, it's your team at that point and you have to treat it like that," Minshew said.
"Coming in right now, I think we have a lot of stuff that we can work on, really get dialed in on -- getting the reps, getting some good conversations with these guys -- and just figuring out our identity and what we're going to look like."
Minshew just needs to be average for the Raiders to win games. They have a good defense and plenty of weapons on offense. He's never been this well set up in his career. That said, he'll likely have a short leash. Head coach Antonio Pierce likes Aidan O'Connell and won't hesitate to give him a chance if Minshew isn't playing well.
Though the quarterback battle is over for now, Minshew can't take his foot off the gas if he hopes to remain the starter for an entire season.