Former No. 1 Pick Among 3 Possible QB Replacements for Aidan O’Connell

Things continue to go from bad to worse for the Las Vegas Raiders. The team recently benched Gardner Minshew due to his poor play but his replacement, Aidan O’Connell, already got hurt.

O’Connell had to leave the Week 7 game against the Los Angeles Rams early and according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, he’s going to miss four-to-six weeks with a fractured thumb. Minshew replaced O’Connell in the game and turned the ball over four times.

Considering he’s a veteran who is clearly not the quarterback of the future, the Raiders would be wise to let a young guy take the starting reps for the rest of the season. However, that player may not be on the roster yet. We’re going to go through some of the best quarterback options for Las Vegas.

Bryce Young

The Carolina Panthers are among the worst teams in the NFL. After an atrocious start to the season, the team decided to make Andy Dalton the starter despite having second-year former No. 1 pick Bryce Young on the roster.

The team has gone 1-4 since benching Young and is coming off a 40-7 loss to the Washington Commanders. The Panthers have no reason not to play Young the rest of the season but they’ve proven to be an incompetent franchise for years.

If they don’t plan on playing the former Alabama star, the Raiders would be happy to. He may not be any good but he was the No. 1 pick a year ago for a reason. He’d be worth risking a fourth-round pick if the Panthers are willing to make a trade. At worst, the Raiders are still bad and end up with a top-five draft pick.

Trey Lance

Trey Lance is in a similar boat to Young. He was drafted very highly but hasn’t shown that he can be an NFL quarterback. The Dallas Cowboys gave Dak Prescott massive money this offseason and already have his backup, Cooper Rush, on the roster.

Similar to Young, Lance might just simply be bad but it doesn’t hurt for a team like the Raiders to see what he can do. His price should be very low. Likely nothing more than a seventh-round pick. He’ll be a free agent after the season and is a third-string quarterback so the Cowboys have no reason to keep him. It wouldn’t hurt the Raiders to see if he could breathe some life into the quarterback room.

Carter Bradley

The most likely replacement for O’Connell is already in the Raiders’ building. Undrafted free agent rookie Carter Bradley is currently on the team’s practice squad. He wasn’t particularly impressive in the preseason or in college but he’s at least a young player for the Raiders to try out.

The Raiders will still need to add another quarterback in some capacity but it’s possible that Bradley could be the guy going forward. Minshew is basically unplayable right now so it can’t hurt the team too much to put Bradley out there.

That said, he doesn’t really have any long-term upside so the Raiders may be better off trying out a quarterback who could still have some potential, but the team may simply be all in on looking toward the 2025 NFL Draft.