Aidan O’Connell was thrust into the starting role as Las Vegas Raiders quarterback in the middle of the season, as free-agent signing Jimmy Garoppolo did not exactly pan out the way the team had hoped.
A fan favorite going into the year due to his impressive preseason showing, O’Connell has had an up and down rookie campaign, and he spoke about it heading into the Raiders’ season finale.
“Throughout it, there’s been good and bad,” O’Connell said, via Adam Hill of The Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I think I’m more so just disappointed that we didn’t win more games. I think that’s what ultimately will be what hurts the most is not being able to pull out some of the games that I think we could have won.”
O’Connell has made nine starts this season, going 4-5 in those contests. Out of those five losses, four of them came by one touchdown or less. Two of them were three-point defeats, including an embarrassing 3-0 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 14.
“We’ve been in every single game, and so it’s been frustrating to not be able to go win some of those games, even coming down to the last drive. … So, that’s kind of the scar tissue that hurts,” added O’Connell. “Obviously, we’ve had some good wins, but yeah, I think the lack of capitalizing on opportunities in late drives and stuff like that, I think that’s what I’m thinking about the most.”
The 25-year-old, who played his collegiate football at Purdue, was selected by Las Vegas in the fourth round of the NFL Draft last spring. He has thrown for 1,974 yards, 10 touchdowns and seven interceptions while completing 61.9 percent of his passe and posting a passer rating of 81.3 in his debut campaign.
O’Connell feels that the lumps he has taken in his first season will help him grow.
“I think being able to learn from experiences, even failure sometimes, is super helpful,” O’Connell said. “So, you fail and you learn, and you try not to make the same mistake twice.”
Aidan O’Connell and the Raiders are 7-9 and will conclude their regular season when they battle the Denver Broncos this Sunday.
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