The Las Vegas Raiders won't truly exit rebuild mode until they find a starting quarterback, and the remainder of a lost season has provided the franchise with an opportunity to hold auditions.
There aren't many signal callers currently on the market who profile as a potential starter for the Raiders in 2025, though former New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones is probably the closest thing.
Dianna Russini of The Athletic linked Jones and the Giants on the Tuesday, Nov. 26 edition of her "Scoop City" podcast.
"I was told there are several teams that are interested in bringing Daniel Jones on," Russini said. "Perhaps maybe the Raiders make sense, right, because they've got injuries in their quarterback room. But we'll see where he winds up -- if perhaps maybe he wants to be a little bit more patient, wait it out a little, and join a playoff team."
Raiders fans might groan to read that after struggling through the last vestiges of the Derek Carr era before the broken promise of Jimmy Garopollo.
Since, they have watched the team flip-flop between the mediocre options of Gardner Minshew -- now out for the season with a broken collarbone he suffered Sunday -- and Aidan O'Connell who has been out for several weeks with a broken thumb but will start on Friday against the Kansas City Chiefs.
That said, the only other real options for Las Vegas are to select a quarterback in next year's NFL draft and/or pursue a QB in free agency. The 2025 class is relatively weak and the best options on the free-agent market come March are likely to be Sam Darnold of the Minnesota Vikings and Justin Fields of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Were the league to hold the draft today, the Raiders would select No. 3 overall and probably go with a quarterback like Shedeur Sanders of Colorado or maybe Cam Ward of Miami.
Even still, bringing Jones in now would give the team a chance to try him out and possibly inject the locker room with a little bit of much-needed energy. Jones, who signed a $160 million extension less than two years ago, should be relatively cheap to ink for the remainder of 2024, and Las Vegas wouldn't need to make any long-term commitments at this juncture.
Jones, however, is interested in a playoff contender if he can find one interested in him, which might be a roadblock where the Raiders are concerned. Either way, Russini reported Tuesday that the former Giants QB will probably sign somewhere before the end of the week.
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