Aidan O'Connell still fighting to be Raiders' long-term starter

HENDERSON, Nev. -- Aidan O'Connell has heard the rumblings. He has felt them since his playing days at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois.

They reverberated in his six years on campus at Purdue.

And they have surfaced again -- numerous times -- in his star-crossed two-season stint with the Las Vegas Raiders.

Since he has never been a bona fide, true-blue, no-doubt-about-it No. 1 starter at quarterback, he has always had to look over his shoulder at who might be gaining ground on him. So yeah, O'Connell has grown comfortable with being, well, uncomfortable as the Raiders prepare for a cross-country trip to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"I think it's almost expected at this point," O'Connell said. "And I don't think it's going to be anything different for the rest of my career. I hope I can be established and know I'm going to play, but I think it's part of the NFL.

"They're going to bring in new guys every year to try to compete and try to get the best product on the field. So for as long as I get to play this game, I'm going to be ready to compete."

At 2-10, the Raiders are on pace for a top-three draft pick. And with it never being too early for draft talk, talk of Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders and his relationship with new Raiders minority owner Tom Brady has taken on a life of its own. After all, Raiders owner Mark Davis said he hoped Brady would help "select a quarterback in the future and potentially train him as well" at the October league meetings.

Miami quarterback Cam Ward? He, too, has entered the chat.

Thing is, it's actually O'Connell who holds the keys to the Raiders' QB future. If he plays as well as he did in his last outing -- the heartbreaking Black Friday loss at the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs -- and wins a few games down the stretch, then Las Vegas' draft slot drops significantly enough that, minus a trade up, the Raiders won't be in position to draft Sanders or Ward.

And the reemerging rumors of Davis issuing a mandate that general manager Tom Telesco must draft a quarterback?

Simply not true, said a team source with knowledge of the situation.

If O'Connell's showing at the Chiefs -- a career-high 340 yards passing with two TDs and driving the Raiders in the din of Arrowhead Stadium on a last-minute drive to Kansas City's 32-yard line before that fateful notched snap and lost fumble -- was not enough to earn the admiration of his teammates, how he has handled the unending uncertainty certainly has.

"It shows how competitive he is," said Raiders receiver Jakobi Meyers. "How well within he is. He's at peace, I guess, if he said that. I mean, that's pretty cool of him to say, honestly.

"I never heard him say it, but to acknowledge it and still go out there and ball and play with your [job] on the line like that? Shout out to him, man. You've got to tip your hat to him."

With previous starter Gardner Minshew, who beat O'Connell in a training camp battle, out with a season-ending broken collarbone, there was a certain back-to-the-future feel with O'Connell. Playing in his first game since breaking his right thumb in Week 7, O'Connell brought the deep ball back to the Raiders.

Consider: O'Connell's 58-yard touchdown pass to Tre Tucker traveled 50.4 yards in the air, per NFL Next Gen Stats. And while it was O'Connell's longest completion of his career (the longest completion by air yards of any quarterback in Week 13), five of his six such longest career completions came last week against the Chiefs.

"He's a really smart, focused individual," said Raiders interim offensive coordinator Scott Turner. "He makes decisions on time, and for the most part they're the right decisions. No one's going to be 100%, but I always tell him, 'If the ball is coming out of your hand, then I'm not going to be mad at you.'"

O'Connell took three sacks at Kansas City, one of which knocked the Raiders out of field-goal range in the eventual 19-17 loss.

"The more he plays, the more he'll continue to grow," Turner added. "But I wanted to give him a chance to make plays on Friday night, and he did."

O'Connell, working with not only Turner as his playcaller for the first time but also with rookie center Jackson Powers-Johnson for the first time, excelled in the two-minute offense at the end of the game, driving from the Raiders' 8-yard line.

Then came a fateful fumble with 14 seconds remaining.

"Definitely some good plays, but it just stinks more than anything," O'Connell said. "It was just a really hard loss. Even sometimes when you have a game right after, it's easier to move on, but we had kind of a longer week this week and so, kind of really got to sit in it, and it's no fun.

"The mistakes kind of are what really stays in your mind, and you try to just learn from them and move on."

While being comfortable with being uncomfortable.