With the poor play from the two seasoned veterans on the roster, turning to O’Connell makes sense at this stage.

When asked by Rapoport why the Raiders will ride with O’Connell, a source responded: “He’s our best QB.”

That’s a stinging indictment of Garoppolo.

Vegas inked Jimmy G to a three-year $72.75 million contract this offseason as McDaniels’ hand-picked replacement for Derek Carr. The marriage got off to an ominous start with the QB’s foot injury pausing the introductory press conference as the sides figured out the health-related issues. The deal eventually got sorted out but foreshadowed problems to come.

Garoppolo, who struggled to stay healthy for stints in San Francisco, once again dealt with injury issues, missing two tilts and getting knocked out at halftime of another this season due to a back injury. When he was on the field, it wasn’t pretty. The QB generated just one game of more than 208 yards passing and currently leads the NFL with nine interceptions despite significantly fewer snaps than other starting signal-callers.

Outside the comfort of a Kyle Shanahan offense, Garoppolo struggled to move the ball, airmailed a host of passes, and was easily rattled by pressure. Monday night’s disastrous outing in Detroit, which included missing badly deep to Davante Adams multiple times, appeared to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. 

Benching Garoppolo is the short-term move. The question for the new GM this offseason will be whether the club swallows the dead money on the QB’s contract and completely moves on.

In the meantime, O’Connell will start his second game of his career on Sunday against the Giants in Vegas.

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The Las Vegas Raiders are making wholesale changes from the top down.

Tensions were high on the team following a frustrating Monday Night Football defeat against the Detroit Lions, and owner Mark Davis has evidently decided that enough was enough.

The team made a stunning move early Wednesday morning by announcing it had fired head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager David Ziegler and named Antonio Pierce the interim head coach. Now, Las Vegas will be trotting out a new starting quarterback for the rest of the 2023 season.

NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport reported that rookie Aidan O’Connell is expected to start in place of Jimmy Garoppolo beginning Sunday against the New York Giants and moving forward.

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Another major move in Las Vegas: The #Raiders are expected to start rookie QB Aidan O’Connell this week and going forward, with Jimmy Garoppolo going to the bench. The promising O’Connell now gets his shot. pic.twitter.com/2lN5Aey5X8

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 1, 2023

Rapoport followed that up with a quote from a Raiders source who said “[O’Connell’s] our best QB.”

Garoppolo completed just 10 passes for 126 yards while throwing a pick and missing a wide-open Davante Adams on several occasions against the Lions on Monday. For the season, Garoppolo has seven passing touchdowns and nine interceptions across six games.

The former New England Patriots and San Francisco 49ers signal caller heads to the bench after agreeing to a three-year, $67.5 million deal, including $34 million guaranteed, with the Raiders in this past March.

O’Connell, meanwhile, is in line to make his first NFL start. The fourth-round rookie has one touchdown pass and a pair of interceptions while completing 34 of 52 pass attempts in two appearances so far this season.

The Raiders are 3-5 on the year and 1.5 games back in a crowded AFC wild card chase. The team hosts the Giants in Week 9, New York Jets on Sunday Night Football in Week 10, visits the Miami Dolphins in Week 11 and welcomes the Kansas City Chiefs to town in Week 12 before finally getting to their bye.

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