Raiders GM explains team’s decision not to draft a QB

The Las Vegas Raiders did not get in on the run on quarterbacks in the first round of the NFL Draft, and they did not target one in the later rounds either. According to general manager Tom Telesco, they were not particularly tempted to, either.

Telesco said the Raiders were willing to draft a quarterback if they felt it had a chance of improving their roster, but the opportunity never presented itself. The GM did admit, however, that things may have been different had the first round progressed differently.

“On the third day? No. Really not the second day either. First day, yes. But not after that,” Telesco said, via Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk. “[I]f we felt there was a quarterback out there that was better than we had, or could potentially be better, certainly we would have done something [about] it. But it didn’t line up.”

That certainly indicates that the Raiders may have wanted in on the first-round quarterback rush. Once Bo Nix came off the board at No. 12, one spot ahead of the Raiders’ pick, every quarterback that could plausibly have fit as a first-round pick was already taken. There was some surprise that they did not look at a player like Spencer Rattler on day three, but they may have shared some of the reported concerns about him.

As things stand, the Raiders will enter the 2024 season with veteran Gardner Minshew as the most experienced quarterback on their roster, with Aidan O’Connell likely to compete with him for the starting job.