The Las Vegas Raiders entered the 2024 NFL season with plenty of hype surrounding head coach Antonio Pierce. The only problem was that he was not quite up to the challenge yet, and general manager Tom Telesco did not necessarily give him the tools to succeed.
After the fan base begged for a rookie quarterback in what looked like an elite draft class, the team opted instead to sign veteran Gardner Minshew to a two-year deal. While this was certainly a head-scratching move when it happened, time has looked upon the signing even less favorably.
It turned out that none of the six quarterbacks were even available when the Raiders were on the clock at No. 13, which absolved Telesco of some blame. However, that is far from the entire story.
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Telesco was recently featured on an episode of the "Check the Mic" podcast with Steve Palazzolo and Sam Monson. He was asked about the prospect of taking Michael Penix Jr. with the No. 13 pick, and his response raised some eyebrows.
“Did a lot of work, talked a lot about (taking Penix)," Telesco admitted. "But in the end, probably not. Probably not."
Penix was obviously good enough to be taken with the No. 8 overall pick and eventually supplant veteran Kirk Cousins, but apparently, he was not Telesco's flavor. He did also express that a trade up for Jayden Daniels was possible, but that he felt like the roster was not in shape for a trade up.
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Of course, the Raiders won four games in 2024, and Daniels led what many thought to be a worse roster to the NFC Championship Game. Telesco was not done with his questionable takes either. He spoke about eventual Broncos quarterback Bo Nix and why the team wanted him to fall to No. 13.
"Bo Nix, his background of work, his durability, his movement skills, that would've been a good possibility (at 13)," Telesco said.
While Raider Nation, by and large, was not a fan of Nix during the pre-draft process, they were especially out on him in the first round. He did have a more impressive rookie season than most expected him to, but the ceiling is obviously higher for Penix, yet Telesco still seemingly preferred Nix.
Looking ahead a year, the Raiders are fortunate to have a duo of Brock Bowers and Geno Smith as opposed to Bo Nix and Michael Mayer, but this was not Telesco's intention. Bowers simply fell into Las Vegas' lap, just like Justin Herbert did when Telesco was the general manager for the Los Angeles Chargers.
Telesco's tenure with the Silver and Black is not looked upon too poorly because he was able to grab Bowers, Jackson Powers-Johnson and DJ Glaze in his lone draft. However, he let Josh Jacobs leave in free agency, he signed Minshew to a two-year deal and the jury is still out on whether the $110 million investment he made in Christian Wilkins will be worth it.
The Raiders are far better off with John Spytek and Pete Carroll in charge of the franchise, and Telesco's view of the 2024 quarterback class proves just that.