Breaking: Raiders Pull Off Blockbuster Trade: Minshew Dealt for 37-TD QB Sensation
The Las Vegas Raiders played too well for their own good down the stretch and now own the No. 6 selection in the 2025 NFL draft, almost certainly too low of a pick to secure either Shedeur Sanders of Colorado or Cam Ward of Miami.
That said, the team can’t stick with the combination of Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell, who combined with Desmond Ridder to lead the team to a 4-13 record. Head coach Antonio Pierce is on the hot seat heading into 2025 and the franchise has momentum after Tom Brady joined it as a minority owner.
All that is to say that it is highly likely something is going to happen in the desert this offseason, and Benjamin Solak of ESPN predicted that something will include a couple of trades to put the Raiders in position to procure their signal caller of the future.
“I predict they’ll trade Gardner Minshew to a team that needs a veteran, opening the competition between Aidan O’Connell and a rookie early draft pick, either Sanders or Ward,” Solak wrote on Monday, Jan. 6. “It’s a bad quarterback class, but the Raiders are so desperate I could see them trading up to be the team that takes the first passer off the board.”
If Las Vegas does go up to get the first passer drafted, it’s probably going to mean trading all the way into the No. 1 pick, which the Tennessee Titans currently own. The Titans also need a quarterback after their failed Will Levis experiment in 2024.
Moving on from Minshew might garner the Raiders a solid Day-3 pick, but his return won’t come close to financing a deal to move from No. 6 to No. 1 on draft day. As such, Las Vegas will be mortgaging its mid-range draft future to jump five spots for a quarterback, which renders that player a must-hit lest the Raiders resign themselves to years of mediocrity — or worse.
Sanders finished his final collegiate season with 4,134 passing yards and 37 touchdowns, leading the Big 12 in both categories.
