Raiders named possible landing spot for $10 million breakout quarterback

The Las Vegas Raiders will be searching for a franchise quarterback in 2025 after it has become very clear that neither Gardner Minshew nor Aidan O'Connell are the long-term answers the team needs.

The hope is that the Raiders can land one of the top quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL Draft, but with Las Vegas slipping to No. 6 in the draft order after Week 16, the team isn't guaranteed to be in position for them.

If Las Vegas decides the draft isn't their best avenue for a franchise quarterback, Andrew Buller-Russ of Sportsnaut thinks Minnesota Vikings signal-caller Sam Darnold could be an option for the Raiders.

Brock Bowers might be the NFL’s best tight end in a few short years, if not next season. Tight ends are a quarterback’s best friend, and the Raiders could have trouble getting their QB of the future via the draft, where they’re projected to pick sixth. But again, would Darnold feel good about heading to the Raiders, where Antonio Pierce’s future is likely in question?

Darnold signed a one-year, $10 million deal with the Vikings in the offseason and has resurrected his career in head coach Kevin O'Connell's offense. As a result, he'll be one of the marquee veteran quarterback options on the open market in 2025, assuming the Vikings move on from him and go with J.J. McCarthy.

The risk of bringing in Darnold is he has a small sample size of success, so he isn't guaranteed to be the answer. And, he's going to be costly, so the Raiders won't have the benefit of building around a cheap rookie contract, which is always the ideal route to go.

As far as the latter point is concerned, Las Vegas will have a lot of of cap space to afford Darnold, with general manager Tom Telesco projected to have $108.2 million to work with in 2025, per Over the Cap.

But the Raiders have gone down the veteran quarterback route before, only to be left disappointed. Ideally, Las Vegas grabs a young quarterback in the draft, but if the Raiders decide to dip into the free-agent market for their next starter instead, Darnold would be a decent option.

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