Brian Hoyer's Value To The Raiders

Jimmy Garoppolo's injury history and Aidan O'Connell's youth, make Brian Hoyer's experience an invaluable asset for the Raiders.

On cut-down day, the Las Vegas Raiders decided to keep three quarterbacks on their roster. While all three quarterbacks are new to Las Vegas, two have prior experience with Coach Josh McDaniels. 

One of those two has a more extensive history, not just with McDaniels and the New England Patriots but around the NFL. Brian Hoyer is entering his 16th NFL season. McDaniels views Hoyer as a vital piece of Aidan O'Connell's progression.

"Aidan [O'Connell] has obviously got a lot of developing in front of him," McDaniels said. "Brian has played plenty of football, and obviously we're excited about Jimmy [Garoppolo]. So, feel like we've got a good room.

"I like what those guys are doing, they work well together. The guys with some experience offer their hand to Aidan when he has opportunity to learn from them, and those guys are hard at work trying to get ready themselves."

Hoyer knows a thing about helping a young quarterback fully transition into the NFL from his time in New England.

"Yeah, he's [O'Connell] done a great job," Hoyer said. "I mean, this is not an easy offense to learn, especially as a young guy. I mean, I got to watch Mac Jones run it two years ago, and really that was impressive.

"And Aidan [O'Connell] is doing a good job too of coming in as a rookie. They throw a lot at you, and then you have to try to retain it. So, he's done a really good job of learning it. He's not making a lot of mental mistakes."

Once Hoyer left New England, he felt the natural choice was for him to reunite with his old coach, McDaniels. 

"When I got released from New England, there was only one place that I was going to play and that was for Josh [McDaniels]," Hoyer said. "I wasn't going to go learn a new system, learn a new verbiage. So, when the opportunity presented itself, it was something that I didn't want to pass up.

"He's a great leader, and not just with him, but the staff that I've worked with before that are out here are all guys who I love and have gone to battle with and been in those tough situations and there's no people I trust more than Josh and Bo [Hardegree] and Mick [Lombardi] and Carmen [Bricillo] and Jerry [Schuplinski]. So, I just feel fortunate the opportunity came up."

As fortunate as Hoyer might feel, the Raiders feel similarly fortunate. 

The Silver and Black open the regular season at the Denver Broncos on Sunday, Sept. 10, at 4:25 p.m. EDT/1:25 p.m. PDT.

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