The Raiders enter the 2023 offseason firmly in the quarterback market.
As head coach Josh McDaniels noted in his Tuesday press conference at the Combine, Las Vegas currently has just Chase Garbers under contract for next season. Jarrett Stidham could be back, but as a pending unrestricted free agent, there’s no guarantee of that.
McDaniels noted deciding to cut and subsequently bench Carr was tough given everything he’d done with the franchise.
“But do I want to sit here and say I hope we can improve at that position, I hope we improve at every position on our team? I do. And then that’s what we’re going to work towards,” McDaniels said. “That’s defiantly what we’re going to work towards.”
McDaniels said there’s “urgency” for the Raiders to get the right quarterback. But the team doesn’t want to acquire a QB just to check a box.
“The goal for us eventually is to have somebody that’s going to be here for a long time. I think you see the teams that are having success right now in our league, in our conference, and specifically in our division, they’re young players that were drafted by their clubs and they’re being developed there under the same continuity,” McDaniels said. “But do I think you have to do that if you’re not sure or not sold on the player? And now you’re making a mistake just to try to say that you’ve solving a problem? I don’t think that’s really a smart decision.
“So, we’re going to do everything we can do to evaluate every player at that position — both in the draft and free agency and try to do what we can do to improve the room.”
The Raiders have the No. 7 overall pick in this year’s draft and could very well use it on a quarterback. McDaniels said he’s still early in his process of evaluating the class, but will meet with many of the incoming QBs at the Combine this week.
But no matter who ends up being the signal-caller, McDaniels said the team is focused on getting some better QB production.
“At this point in time, we don’t know who that player is yet,” McDaniels said. “Once we identify who’s going to be there, there’s certainly an expectation that we’re going to get good play out of that position. We have to get good play out of that position.”
