Among the handful of teams who enter the 2025 NFL offseason with a hole to fill at quarterback are the Las Vegas Raiders, who trotted out the likes of Aidan O’Connell, Gardner Minshew and Desmond Ridder at quarterback throughout the 2024 season. For that reason, and a handful of others to be fair, the Raiders were 29th in scoring and 28th in passing touchdowns last year. But with a new coaching regime in town, led by longtime Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, the Raiders are looking to fast-track a turnaround.
Figuring out who the starting quarterback will be for the 2025 season, and potentially beyond, would be a great place to start that turnaround. The Raiders have the 6th pick in the NFL Draft, but they may not wait until late April to address this need. For about 24 hours it looked like the Raiders were on the verge of putting together a deal for Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, but on Friday morning, Stafford and the Rams agreed to a new deal. This puts the Raiders back at square one, but according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the team does have a few targets, including one QB that Pete Carroll is very familiar with.
“With Matthew Stafford remaining with the Rams, the Las Vegas Raiders now are expected to investigate veteran quarterback options that include Russell Wilson, Justin Fields and Sam Darnold, per sources,” Schefter writes on X.
It’s not surprising that Wilson’s name remains linked to the Raiders. About 15 minutes after Pete Carroll was announced as the team’s new head coach, rumors began circulating that this could be a landing spot for the 36-year-old quarterback who he coached in Seattle for a decade.
Signing Darnold would require the Raiders to spend the most money, even if Darnold’s value dropped following two brutal weeks of football in the month of January. Fields, along with former Steelers teammate Wilson, could be viewed as a cheaper short-term option if the Raiders wanted to wait on pursuing their franchise quarterback.
Interestingly, the one name not mentioned here as a potential option in Las Vegas is Aaron Rodgers, who has recently — and hilariously — been linked to the New York Giants after the G-Men, like the Raiders, fell out of the Matthew Stafford sweepstakes. But in fairness, do Tom Brady and Pete Carroll really want to deal with that season-long headache?
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