The 2024 season can’t end soon enough for the Las Vegas Raiders. The team was ravaged by injuries heading into their Week 14 matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and things only got worse during the game.
In the second half, quarterback Aidan O’Connell was rolling out of the pocket when he was pushed to the ground by Buccaneers defensive line Calijah Kancey. O’Connell wasn’t able to get back up and eventually had to be carted off the field with what the Raiders are describing as a knee injury. Head coach Antonio Pierce said that O’Connell’s status “doesn’t look good.”
The injury may have been avoidable as Kancey hit O’Connell after he had thrown the ball. Despite an official standing right in front of the play, there was no flag for roughing the passer, which upset many fans.
Pierce seemed irked about the lack of a penalty there.
“We asked, per usual,” he said when asked about why the officials didn’t throw a penalty flag in his postgame press conference.
With only four games left in the season, it’s more than likely that O’Connell has played his last snap. If he gets sent to the Injured Reserve, this will be the third time this season the Raiders have had to send a quarterback there. O’Connell already had one stint there after breaking his thumb earlier in the season and Gardner Minshew is done for the year with a broken collarbone. It’s been an injury-plagued year for Las Vegas and it seems to be getting worse before it gets better.