Tom Telesco experienced firsthand last week how rough it can be to get a desirable NFL QB.
The veteran general manager’s options?
Slim and none.
This, despite his Raiders owning a top-15 pick in the NFL Draft and former scouts grading this year’s QB class as better and deeper than in most years.
Instead of trying to manufacture a solution, Telesco invested the 13th pick in tight end Brock Bowers — a smart move.
Bowers brings All-Pro potential to an offense that stands below-average. If Telesco drafts a QB next year, Bowers figures to improve the rookie’s chances of panning out.
But an existential problem wasn’t solved. Unless current Raiders QBs Gardner Minshew, Aidan O’Connell or Anthony Brown shock the football world in the season ahead, Telesco will still need to find a QB who can counter the likes of AFC stars Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Jim Harbaugh and CJ Stroud.
Welcome to the Raiders, Tom.
You’re in Quarterback Jail.
Telesco isn’t familiar with his plight, having enjoyed astounding QB luck for most of his lengthy NFL career.
In 1991, when Telesco was starting out with the Buffalo Bills as an intern, Canton-bound Jim Kelly was in the fold and still had three more Super Bowl seasons in his future.
When Telesco followed his Bills mentor Bill Polian, the Hall of Fame talent man, to the Indianapolis Colts after a brief stop with the Carolina Panthers, the football gods showered the franchise with QB gifts in multiple years.
Thanks to NFL-worst seasons in 1997 and 2011, the Colts twice had first crack at drafting a quarterback graded highly by most NFL scouts, bringing them Tennessee’s Peyton Manning in 1998 and Stanford’s Andrew Luck in 2012.
Manning was an easy choice, Polian said. Telesco deemed it a no-brainer for the Colts to select Luck.
Telesco launched his GM career in San Diego following the 2012 season.
He inherited Philip Rivers, giving him a good shot at playoff berths and job security. In another stroke of QB good fortune, Rivers wouldn’t miss any meaningful snaps, much less starts, in their seven years together.
The QB roll didn’t end there for Telesco and the Shamrock Chargers.
Rivers’ final Bolts team lost enough games to hand Telesco the sixth pick in the 2020 draft. When QB Justin Herbert was available with an assist from another team’s club owner who later would be forced to sell the franchise (Daniel Snyder of Washington) and a GM who would be fired (Bob Quinn of the Lions), Telesco had the good sense to draft the former Oregon star.
The Raiders couldn’t relate to Telesco’s charmed run at the sport’s most consequential position.
They’ve occupied the Schleprock end of the QB-procurement spectrum for decades.
So when Telesco ran his first Raiders draft, something had to give.
Turned out, the ‘23 Raiders didn’t lose enough games to get Telesco into the thick of the QB market. Six QBs went before the No. 13 pick. Trading up wasn’t a realistic option, other than, perhaps, for J.J. McCarthy or Bo Nix. The only team that traded up for a QB, Kevin O’Connell’s Vikings, rose just one spot.
The whole industry wasn’t excited with quarterbacks who followed. Following Sean Payton’s selection of Nix at No. 12, it wasn’t until the 150th pick that another QB was drafted.
Telesco, who didn’t inherit any surplus draft picks, really didn’t have a good shot here.
Many talent men have tried and failed to break the Raiders out of QB Jail. Go all the way back to 1968, when Al Davis took Alabama alum Kenny Stabler 52nd, for the franchise’s best draft pick at the position.
It’ll be fascinating to see how Telesco and coach Antonio Pierce go about it.
Minshew, 28, does give the Raiders a realistic shot at challenging for a playoff berth if the defensive line lives up to its top-10 standing and Bowers provides inside production to complement wideout Davante Adams.
The mobility-challenged O’Connell, 25, made 10 starts last year. He’ll need to consolidate those lessons into growth. He’d be wise to learn as much as possible from Tom Brady, a friend of Raiders owner Mark Davis.
Grateful Ron Mix
A Hall of Fame tackle is still applauding the selection Thurdsday night of Notre Dame left tackle Joe Alt fifth overall by a new Chargers braintrust headed by coach Jim Harbaugh and GM Joe Hortiz.
“I loved it,” Ron Mix said this week, adding that all nine of the club’s draftees impressed him.
Among other traits, Mix liked that Alt was athletic enough to play tight end as a Notre Dame freshman. He said Sid Gillman, his former Chargers coach, liked tackles who were converted tight ends. It worked out with Mix, a standout for San Diego’s AFL-champion team in 1963 who played end at USC before moving to tackle as a junior.
Mix said he’d sent a letter to Harbaugh and Hortiz pleading with them to draft a tackle. He deemed it a dire need. Impressed by Alt’s size, technique and athleticism, he predicts the tandem of Alt and 2021 second-team All-Pro Rashawn Slater will greatly benefit the 26-year-old Herbert.
