When it comes to the national media, there is no bigger voice than Peter King. He has been a stalwart of NFL journalism for the last 30 years and his weekly column on NBC Sports is a must-read.
Usually, the Raiders don’t receive too many glowing reports in his long-form article that is published on Monday mornings. But that wasn’t the case this week.
According to King, Aidan O’Connell was one of his “Offensive Player of the Week” winners after putting together his best performance of the season. Here is a snippet of what King had to say about the rookie quarterback from Week 15:
O’Connell could play in the league for 15 years and not have a 20-minute stretch like the one he had Thursday night in the last 20 of the first half. O’Connell threw touchdown passes of 30, 22, 11 and 20 yards (occasionally encountering Charger players who actually were trying) while leading Vegas to a 42-0 halftime lead. He finished with 248 passing yards and 120.7 rating in the 63-21 beatdown of L.A.
The Raiders are still expected to select a quarterback relatively early, but O’Connell has three more games to impress the next coaching staff. After a few rough outings in a row, this was a step in the right direction for the rookie from Purdue.
