Graney: What we knew before is now obvious — Raiders need a QB
DENVER — It became obvious as the months moved forward, through OTAs and mandatory minicamp and training camp out in Costa Mesa, California.
It’s not about a lack of desire or effort. It’s not about a lack of wanting to be good for the team, wanting to produce for every last man in the locker room.
It’s not about anything except the obvious truth.
The Raiders need a quarterback.
It’s what we have known for some time now.
The answer should come in the future, be it in the offseason or via next spring’s draft. For now, however, Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell are the options.
As such, winning consistently will be all sorts of difficult the rest of this season.
Too inconsistent
The Raiders fell to the Broncos 34-18 at Empower Field at Mile High on Sunday. It was a defeat in which Minshew’s play after a memorable start did his team no favors.
Crazy. There have been small glimpses of good offense. The fourth quarter at Baltimore. Early on Sunday, when Minshew completed his first nine passes for 115 yards.
But do you know what they say about NFL teams that are as up-and-down as the Raiders, ones riding the roller coaster of a good performance one week and a forgettable one the next? That they’re a bad team.
The same could be said for a side’s quarterback play.
One bad pass can turn the entire complexion of a game. It did Sunday when Minshew overthrew rookie tight end Brock Bowers in the end zone. The high lob was intercepted by all-everything Denver cornerback Pat Surtain II, who returned the pick 100 yards for a score to tie the game 10-10.
The Broncos never looked back.
The Raiders never recovered.
“I killed our momentum with that pick-6,” Minshew said. “At the end of the day, I didn’t do a good enough job giving us a shot to be competitive in the game. It’s on me. We’ll show up (Monday) and get back to work like we always do and keep rolling.”
There isn’t much rolling going on when you can’t string together consecutive good performances. Minshew was 3 of 8 for 22 yards and an interception after the hot start.
He was benched in favor of O’Connell late in the third quarter. O’Connell also threw a pick and then led the Raiders on a scoring drive in garbage time.
I’m not sure it matters who starts against the Steelers next week. This is what the Raiders have now, two likable sorts who are far away from being considered capable NFL quarterbacks.
But they’re probably good enough to direct the Raiders — now 2-3 on the season — to seven or eight wins. And herein lies the issue: That kind of record could have the team drafting outside the top 10.
That does them no good when searching for that elusive franchise quarterback.
It’s obvious the Raiders need to do whatever is necessary to secure a high draft pick. I mean, whatever is necessary. This can’t be where the Raiders sit next season at the game’s most important position. This has to get a whole lot better.
“Just keep going, man,” Minshew said. “Win, lose or draw, we show up Monday and get to work and get better for next week. At the end of the day, that’s all you can really do. We didn’t get the result we wanted today, but we have an opportunity to fix the next one.”
Bad all over
It wasn’t all on the quarterbacks Sunday. Hardly. The Raiders weren’t good at much of anything. They had the missed tackles and foolish penalties to show for it.
They spoke about playing complementary football afterwards but were miles from it. They’re just so inconsistent all over the field.
But things begin and end at quarterback.
The Raiders know what they have this season. Two really nice guys who play the position.
They also know how things need to improve.
The future needs to look a lot better. Desperately so.
Ed Graney, a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing, can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on X.
