Chiefs-Raiders 5 questions with the enemy: Why rush Aidan O’Connell back?

We welcome Silver and Black Pride for answers to five questions about the Raiders before Friday’s Week 12 matchup

On Friday, the Kansas City Chiefs face the Las Vegas Raiders. We welcome Matt Holder of Silver and Black Pride — our sister SBNation site covering the Raiders — for Five Questions with the Enemy.

1) Why are the Raiders rushing Aidan O’Connell back on a short week over going with Desmond Ridder?

Ridder was brought in just to be a backup when O’Connell went down since the only other quarterbacks in the building were Gardner Minshew and undrafted rookie Carter Bradley, who is on the practice squad. There was some speculation that Ridder might get the start after the bye week but that didn’t happen, pretty much confirming his role on the team as the QB2.

Plus, O’Connell only got one game and a quarter as the starter before getting injured, so I think the front office wants to see a bigger sample size to evaluate his potential as a long-term starter. I’m not holding my breath that he’ll win the job, but the rest of the Raiders season is about evaluating who will be part of the long-term plans.

2) Short yardage woes by the Raiders may be the biggest reason Kansas City left Las Vegas with a win. Has that gotten any better in the last month?

Las Vegas’ offensive line has gotten better with rookie Jackson Powers-Johnson moving to center and Jordan Meredith coming off the bench and filling in at left guard. However, the running back situation is still fluid. Zamir White and Alexander Mattison have been sub-par this season and both missed last week’s game while Sincere McCormick looked good with five carries for 33 yards. Granted, that’s a small sample size.

In other words, the Raiders have shown improvement when it comes to running the ball/short-yardage situations, but not enough for me to comfortably say the situation has gotten better to make a big difference on Friday.

3) The Raiders are almost certainly heading for a quarterback change this offseason. Do you see Las Vegas totally cleaning house in the front office and coaching staff to accompany that change?

That’s the big question that I don’t have a great answer to.

I think general manager Tom Telesco will be safe since this was his first year on the job and the Raiders’ draft class has shown promise, headlined by tight end Brock Bowers. As far as Antonio Pierce goes, I hate the idea of starting over with another regime seeing as the franchise has already had three full-time head coaches in the 2020s and four if you count interim Rich Bisaccia in 2021. But, at the same time, it’d be hard to justify keeping Pierce after what will likely be a two- to four-win season.

Ultimately, if I had to guess, I think Telesco will keep his job but...