Las Vegas Raiders coach Josh McDaniels seemed less than impressed with rookie quarterback Aidan O’Connell’s NFL debut.
The 25-year-old O’Connell stepped in to start in place of an injured Jimmy Garoppolo, who suffered a concussion the week before. Las Vegas elected to go with their fourth-round pick out of Purdue, who put together an impressive preseason, instead of veteran Brian Hoyer.
As one of the top-performing quarterbacks in the preseason, he completed 43 of 62 pass attempts (69.3 percent) for 482 yards with three touchdowns against zero interceptions.
His stats in Week 4, though, were a little less desirable. In a 24-17 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, O’Connell completed 24 of 39 pass attempts (61.5 percent) for 238 yards with zero touchdowns and an interception. He was sacked seven times and fumbled three times (two lost).
His performance was about what you’d expect for a Day 3 pick thrown into the fire, but McDaniels sounded less than enthused postgame, throwing his young quarterback under the bus.
“He’ll be the first one to understand the things that he could do better,” McDaniels told reporters following the AFC West divisional battle. “Playing quarterback in our league starts with taking care of the football, whether that be hanging on to it in the pocket, or making good decisions in the passing game. And, also understanding the timing and that element of playing within the pocket in the NFL. It’s not always the same week-to-week. It depends on the rush. It depends on who you are dealing with and how they play. The coverage structures force us to do other things, and then you gotta speed up your reads a little bit and get to the outlet.
“I thought he did better as the game wore on. He dumped the ball down to [Josh Jacobs], I don’t know how many times, but a number of times when they were trying to run out of there. I thought he adapted to the game a little bit as it went on. We’ll take every opportunity to learn from the mistakes we made as a team and I’m sure he will also as a quarterback and try to get better from it.”
McDaniels failed to touch on the offensive line’s performance and his comments about O’Connell’s ability to take care of the football ring hollow when his starting quarterback leads the NFL in interceptions, despite missing Week 4 with an injury. McDaniels was blasted for his play calling, clock management, and inability to win games, so many were not pleased with his lack of accountability for O’Connell’s mistakes.
It remains to be seen if O’Connell and McDaniels, for that matter, can bounce back from Sunday’s performance.
