Raiders free agency: Is Gardner Minshew merely Band-Aid or legit competition?

Veteran has experience and production to be both but profiles more as a quality backup, spot starter than long-term solution

By the looks of it, newly signed quarterback Gardner Minshew is going to fit right into the Antonio Pierce Las Vegas Raiders.

“Man, I always have kind of two goals for myself everywhere I go, to get better and have fun,” Minshew said during his introductory press conference this past Thursday.

Pierce is the antithesis of the coach that preceded him — Josh McDaniels — in that he wants his players to have fun while going through the process of getting better and becoming a winning football team. Seems that three letter F word was not in the vocabulary of the previous regime.

But fit is one thing. Going out there, competing for and winning the Raiders starting quarterback job and leading the team to greatness is another beast of burden.

“You don’t want to put a Band-Aid at that position,” Pierce said at the NFL Combine. “That’s old, man. I think the Raiders, we’ve seen that enough in this organization. You want the face of your franchise to be the quarterback, to be that guy you can count on for the next ten years.”

Which beckons: Is the 27-year-old Minshew, a signal caller who completed his fifth NFL season this past year, merely a Band-Aid or legit competition? Oddly enough, the 178th overall pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2019 NFL Draft is both.

Photo by Candice Ward/Getty Images

Signed to a two-year, $25-million contract ($15 million guaranteed including a $6 million signing bonus), Minshew holds a cheaper $7.7 million cap number this coming season before it increases to $13.7 million in 2025. While those numbers certainly pale in comparison to what other starting quarterbacks have raked in, it’s still nothing to scoff at. It does reek of the Raiders hedging their bets that if they come out of the the 2023 NFL Draft with only Minshew, 2022 fourth-round pick Aidan O’Connell — who started 10 games for Las Vegas this past year — and future/reserve signing Anthony Brown Jr. (an undrafted free agent out of Oregon and assigned the No. 13), a competition will give the team its best starter.

Minshew isn’t the type to seek out handouts as he merely wants an opportunity. With the 6-foot-1 and 225-pounder and is champing at the bit to compete. Thus, he is legit competition.

“I’m always looking for opportunities to compete man, and this is a great one here,” Minshew noted when asked about the “unsettled” quarterback room in Las Vegas. “Excited to get in and compete with a team that I feel like has a chance to be really good. Played them at the end of the year last year, felt some of that momentum, some of that energy that was building, and anytime you have a chance to compete and win that’s all you can really look forward to.”

“It’s going to be competitive. I think they’re going to try to put together the best quarterback room they can. There’s no promises being made, I don’t want any guarantees, I just want a chance, and I’m excited for the chance I have here.”

Minshew certainly has as quality resume for a late-round pick. He’s started 37 career games and played in 49. He threw went 7-6 for the Indianapolis Colts after taking the reins after promising rookie and fourth-overall pick Anthony Richardson was lost for the year due to injury. The Washington State product completed 62.2 percent of his asses (305 of 490) for 3,305 yards with 15 touchdowns to nine interceptions. Minshew even led the Colts past the Raiders 23-20 going 15 of 23 for 224 yards (65.5 percent) with a touchdown and no interceptions in that Week 16 matchup.

That even led to this classic clip between the Raiders’ Maxx Crosby and Minshew:

While Minshew is a scrappy player who gets the most out of his talents, a bona fide starting quarterback he is not. He did have a promising rookie season in Jacksonville (3,271 yards, 21 touchdowns, and six interceptions) followed by a decent sophomore year (2,259 yards, 16 touchdowns to five interceptions), but after, Minshew was backup for the Philadelphia Eagles for two seasons. He inked a one-year deal with the Colts to be a bridge type or quality backup before Richardson earned the QB1 role.

Even with the Raiders history of turning to a veteran and having said quarterback lead them to promising heights, Minshew still holds the characteristics of a quality backup and spot starter — like O’Connell. All this despite Minshew having the ability to relate and fit into that Raiders locker room seamlessly.

“Shoot man, I just try to bring it every day. I just try to set the tone with how I work and set the tone with the energy that I bring,” Minshew said of his leadership style. I think that’s the way you’ve got to lead. You’ve got to lead from the front, and I wouldn’t ask anybody to do anything I wouldn’t be willing to do myself.”

Thus, if Las Vegas is unable to come away with a quarterback prospect in the first two rounds of the upcoming draft, it’s highly likely Minshew and O’Connell duke it out for the starting role. While both may develop into a quality QB1, the two-year pact inked by Minshew and the developmental label on O’Connell looks more temporary stop gap than long-term solution that Pierce said he’d seek.

Minshew’s short-term deal along with O’Connell being on a cheap rookie contract gives the Raiders flexibility as a hedged bet. Perhaps the team gambles a bit more on draft day?