Raiders studs & duds from Week 3: Antonio Pierce on notice

Dud: Gardner Minshew

Gardner Minshew is a great example of how numbers and statistics rarely tell the whole story for a quarterback. On paper, it looks like Minshew is playing at an acceptable level as he has 747 yards, three touchdowns, three picks, and is completing nearly 74% of his passes through three games. One could look at those numbers and think that he is playing efficient football and just needs to clean up the turnovers a bit to be more effective.

What the eye test shows, however, is that Minshew is struggling mightily in this Raiders offense. He is completing a high percentage of his passes because he is constantly throwing checkdowns and hitting guys underneath rather than taking chances downfield. His air yards per attempt is currently 6.79 which is the second lowest of his career and the eye test tells you that he is not in a rhythm with this offense.

Plenty of folks on Raiders Twitter have been calling for O’Connell to start because he is more of a rhythm thrower than Minshew and he isn’t scared to throw the ball downfield even if he is not the most accurate. The Raiders desperately need to open things up offensively because the run game has been historically bad and defenses have no reason to fear the passing attack. Minshew is a gamer and can make some exciting things happen in desperate situations but he has not shown anything in Silver and Black to suggest he should be the starting quarterback.