The Las Vegas Raiders have named Garnder Minshew as their starting quarterback for Week 1 of the new NFL season.
Minshew signed as a free agent this summer and was competing with Aidan O’Connell for the role.
Head coach Antonio Pierce announced the decision on Sunday, following the Raiders’ pre-season loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
He said: “A lot of things went into it.
“It wasn’t based off of [solely] last night. There’s a lot of factors. So, we feel like Gardner gives us the best opportunity to get off to a fast start, and that’s what we’re going with.
“We support him, our team’s behind it, our staff’s behind it, the organization’s behind it.
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— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) August 18, 2024
“The operation, the process and just everything we saw in practice.
“Some of it showed up in the games. A lot of stuff we can get better at.
“I don’t think anything here is a finished product but based off of where we want to go in the first quarter of the season, we feel like Gardner gives us the best opportunity.”
Minshew signed a two-year, $25million contract with the Raiders earlier in the year.
The 28-year-old is on his fourth team of a relatively tame career so far.
After the Cowboys loss, he said: “I think we both put together a great body of work, played some great ball and left it up to Coach to make a hard decision.
“I’m super optimistic about what we’re going to be able to do as a team this year and just looking forward to this year, in general.”
