Las Vegas Raiders at Chicago Bears: Studs and Duds from 2023 Week 7

Raiders QB Brian Hoyer - Dud

Brian Hoyer is 38 years old and boy did he look it on Sunday against the Bears. A week after a solid performance off the bench, Hoyer stunk up the joint in Chicago and struggled to connect with his receivers consistently. His passes were all over the place and his timing was off and given his age, he wasn’t able to bring any mobility or dynamism to the Raiders offense. 

The last time Hoyer threw a touchdown was 2021 and the last time he won a game as a starter was 2016 so it is inconceivable that Raiders brass thought he was the best option on Sunday. Looking around the league and seeing backup QBs like Gardner Minshew, PJ Walker, or Tyson Bagent winning games for their teams makes the decision to go with Hoyer and an unproven rookie as the backups to an injury-prone Jimmy Garoppolo even more maddening.

Perhaps it’s unfair to include Hoyer in the duds category because he shouldn’t even be on the field but he was given an opportunity and couldn’t capitalize. This is a Bears defense that has been incredibly generous to opposing QBs this year but Hoyer looked completely out of sorts. If Jimmy G misses more time this year, and odds are he will, then there is no reason Hoyer should be anything other than 3rd string or an emergency QB moving forward.