Raiders' decision on starting QB vs. Chiefs revealed: Report

Things are grim for the Las Vegas Raiders this season. The team is 2-9, just lost starting quarterback Gardner Minshew for the season to a broken collarbone, and is facing the Kansas City Chiefs this week.

However, the Raiders got a bit of good news. Aidan O'Connell returned to practice this week and the plan is to start him against the Chiefs, per NFL Network's Tom Pelissero.

O'Connell is the last non-Josh Allen quarterback to beat Kansas City so this is good news for Las Vegas. However, he had a 50.3 quarterback rating in the Christmas Day win so he didn't really contribute to the victory.

Regardless, he certainly can't be much worse than Minshew. The two had a close quarterback battle in training camp with Minshew narrowly winning the job. He was eventually benched in favor of O'Connell before the second-year quarterback broke his thumb.

Had he not gotten hurt, it's likely that O'Connell would've been the starting quarterback for the last four games. He should be an upgrade over Minshew but not by much. In the games that he did play this season, O'Connell didn't look great.

Anybody hoping for a Year 2 job have to remember that O'Connell is older than Trevor Lawrence and the same age as Justin Herbert and Tua Tagovailoa. He was old for a rookie so his ceiling is very low.

O'Connell was decent at times last season so it's possible that he'll at least be an upgrade over Minshew. He's not going to be the quarterback of the future but could prove that he can be a high-end backup if he plays well to end the season.

The Raiders have nothing to lose so they may as well let O'Connell air it out to see if he has any juice at all the rest of the season.