Now let me preface this by saying, I don't want any hostility towards anyone here. This is a genuine discussion I want with you all as this seems to be the big topic now entering the bye week.
Looks like AOC won't be the guy (I feel this even with what I have to say), dude is just too immobile for todays NFL and just doesn't have the arm to be a true Raider QB. We NEED downfield accuracy, it's why I feel so many were able to put up with Carr for so long cause he could throw dime 60+ yards. Don't get me wrong, AOC is a solid player and I hope he can fix his woes, but that's up to him and his work ethic cause those issues are physical and mechanical. However, a lot of it has to do with habit and muscle memory which is a tough task to rewrite so it's not likely he succeeds here unless we hire some QB guru.
With all that being said, us as a collective of fans have now shifted our crosshairs toward the future and have begun discussions on which QB to take in the draft. Last year and into this year, people were clamoring about how this QB class was a great one and had some depth to it unlike last year. Unfortunately, each game I see or hear about just gives me less and less confidence in it. Quarterbacks entering the NFL are such a crapshoot and I'd really hate to waste resources and the time our stars have here trying to get some poor kid to quickly acclimate to everything the job of an NFL QB comes with.
Let's look to Andy Reid and the Queefs, they picked up Alex Smith and he did what was asked of him while the FO built a team around him that could keep the team at a playoff level as long as the signal caller was anyone who could play at an above average level. This is a strategy Raider Nation MUST employ.
As of now, our biggest areas of need outside the QB position are (in no particular order): Offensive Line, interior D-Line, CB1 & both Safety positions. We need an immediate impact player at one of these positions in the upcoming draft or it's just gonna be more of what we're seeing now, next year. Simple focusing on our needs in the trenches alone would pretty much give this team the juice it needs to be a playoff contender.
Given some of the names at QB going into FA (Cousins, Tannehil, Mayfield), I just dont see why it would be a big deal to get one of these guys while we build up this team and get them to a competitive, playoff level of football so that way the QB won't have to be asked to do much. Tell em to do their best Trent Dilfer and trust the team and system around him to do most of the work. That way we don't have to try so hard to "pick the right guy" and instead let the right find come to us like Mahomes did with the Chiefs. I think a lot can be said when a team is more relaxed at picking their future because they e got everything else secured. Most teams in huge distress and dysfunction tend to make sloppy decisions because they need to act now. We can avoid this if we just get this team to be complete with a game manager.
