Raiders seen as prime landing spot for record-breaking QB

The Las Vegas Raiders have already made some major moves during the 2024 offseason. They removed the interim tag from Antonio Pierce, making him the full-time head coach. In addition, they found their new general manager, hiring Tom Telesco, formerly of the Los Angeles Chargers, to oversee the front office.

The next order of business in Las Vegas is pinpointing areas of the roster that need to be upgraded. Likely near the top of that list is quarterback, where the Raiders could look to make a change.

Veteran Jimmy Garoppolo remains on the roster, but he isn’t in their plans. He was benched in his first season with the team following the firing of Josh McDaniels. Pierce turned to rookie Aidan O’Connell as his starter for the rest of the season, and the results were mixed.

While Las Vegas played better football and won more games, O’Connell left something to be desired with his performance. Stepping into that role as a rookie fourth-round pick certainly isn’t easy, but there were some ugly performances mixed in.

Should the Raiders look for an upgrade, or at least some competition for O’Connell this offseason, no one would be surprised. Where could they turn for those changes? In the opinion of Pro Football Focus, Oregon’s Bo Nix could be the target.

“The underwhelming Bo Nix we knew from Auburn seems long gone. Nowadays, Nix is seen as a good dual-threat athlete with a legit NFL arm. Most importantly, he’s playing much better under pressure, even if he isn’t pressured as often,” as shared by the PFF Big Board analysis.

Slated to pick 13th, the Raiders aren’t going to be in range for Caleb Williams, Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels, the consensus top three quarterbacks in this year’s class. But, someone such as Nix should be on the board when they come on the clock and Las Vegas could be tempted to pull the trigger.

Unless Pierce and Telesco are confident in O’Connell making major strides this season, a quarterback has to be considered in the draft and free agency. There are some solid building blocks on this roster, but without a quarterback to lead the way offensively, things could go awry.

Nix would bring a ton of experience to the table, starting an NCAA-record 61 games between Auburn and Oregon. He is 23, which will be a knock against him by some franchises, but he has traits that teams will like and the skill set to be developed into a very good NFL quarterback.