Name a starting quarterback and find an identity on offense that will be essential for the Las Vegas Raiders heading into the bye week

With eight players on injured reserve – four of whom were starters or gameday contributors – and an injury report growing by the week, head coach Antonio Pierce knew his Las Vegas Raiders desperately needed a break during the off week.

“To be honest, I don’t think we’ll be practicing at all this week,” Pierce said during his Monday press conference earlier this week. “We’ll meet up and have a few self-scouting moments. We will have some time to think and talk and then take a deep breath, restart, restart as a team, restart as a team and then most likely come back together on Monday and Tuesday.”

The reset is needed as Las Vegas entered the break with a five-game losing streak and an overall record of 2-7. The Silver & Black are bottom-ranked in both offense and defense, ranking 26th in points scored (168 total, 18.7 average per game) and 29th among the 32 teams in terms of points allowed (251 total, 27.9 per game average).

There's a lot of work to do for the Raiders and the question is whether it's really wise for Pierce to not let his team practice during the bye week when a new offensive coordinator (Scott Turner) and a new offensive line coach (Joe Philbin) are in place are in office? – a valid and wise one. But here we are.

And as we enter a three-day holiday weekend, Las Vegas will ramp up its preparations for Week 11 – a trip to the Miami Dolphins – in the new week ahead. So let's take a look at what the Raiders need to accomplish:

1. Determine who the starting quarterback is.
2. Establish an identity on offense.
3. Recalibrate the defense.
4. Also, pay attention to the ball when trying to take it away.

Who is QB1?

This will be a top priority for both Pierce and Turner. Will the Raiders go with the well-compensated Gardner Minshew II for the eighth time this year or will they go with Desmond Ridder?

Minshew – who signed a two-year, $25 million deal with Las Vegas last offseason – was benched again this season as the team was eliminated by the Cincinnati Bengals 41-24 in Week 9 in favor of Ridder, but it's difficult to ignore Minshew's tendency to give up the ball. He has thrown eight interceptions this year (tied for third-most in the league) and has fumbled five times this year (he has had one in each of the last three games). Minshew performed well in the 20-27 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 8 (24 of 30 on an 80 percent completion rate, for 209 yards and two touchdowns), but was ineffective the following week in Cincinnati.

Ridder, meanwhile, went 11 of 16 for 74 yards and a touchdown in mop-up duty in Minshew's place against the Bengals. He was sacked four times and also fumbled. But considering he was signed off the Arizona Cardinals' practice squad on Oct. 22, he's behind the proverbial eight balls. The 25-year-old profiles himself as an athletic quarterback with the ability to gain time through movement. And Ridder was a third-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft just two years ago.

It will be either Minshew or Ridder, depending on who, after Turner and Pierce, has better command of the upcoming offense, as Aidan O'Connell is still on injured reserve with a broken thumb on his throwing hand.

Still, it's likely that the Raiders' future QB1 isn't on the roster.

Establishing an offensive identity

Nine games into the season and still proclaiming that your football team has no identity is almost inexcusable. But here we are with Pierce's Raiders.

“Yeah, I just want to see us, as I've always mentioned, we look right, sound right, fit the philosophy and idea of ​​what I preach, which is physicality, the ability to run the ball, shots over shooting down the field, “First and foremost, protecting the football, being disciplined up front,” Pierce said last Monday.

At the moment the team's identity is in disarray and incompetent football. The Raiders are not living up to Pierce's expectations and it will be up to his new interim offensive coordinator and offensive line coach to convey that going forward.

The good news: Rookie offensive lineman Jackson Powers-Johnson, who started at center, shows the attitude Pierce wants.

Defensive recalibration

What was considered the Raiders' strength at the start of the 2024 season has reverted to the unhappy group the Silver & Black are accustomed to.

The Raiders have given up another 30 points in four games this season, with the Bengals' 41-point loss tying the season high.

“Yeah, no, listen, it's been disappointing the last few weeks. I think we've given up 30-plus points in the last five weeks, three out of the last five, that's not up to our standard,” Pierce said. “These guys are fighting back, the problems are now a little in the red zone. We were pretty good in the red zone, good on third down, that's become a bit of a nemesis for us now and I think we need to fix those things. And again, I just talked to the coaches and Patrick Graham about just going back to the man at the drawing board, going back to what we do well and detailing the tasks. And it's just not the coaches, it's the players doing their job and what's required of them. And we have to do that with all our might.”

This is largely due to injuries – the loss of strong defensive tackle Christian Wilkins, strong safety Marcus Epps during the season and promising pass rusher Malcolm Koonce before the start of the regular season are big hits for a football team that lacks ideal depth.

But the Raiders have no choice but to make do with what they have, and a renewed pass rush against the Dolphins in Week 11 would help tremendously. The offense's inability to sustain attacks also hurts the defense, but the unit isn't doing itself any favors.

Don't give, but take

Las Vegas has an absurd statistic: 19 turnovers on just five takeaways. The number of turnovers leads the league (the Tennessee Titans were second with 17 entering Week 10) and the low number of takeaways puts Las Vegas in a tie with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Cleveland Browns for the least NFL lies.

His -14 ratio in turnovers and takeaways leads the league, and despite Pierce's insistence on protecting the football, his team hasn't done so. If the Raiders are serious about their desire to play good football in the final eight games of the season, they need to stop giving the ball away and start taking it away.

“So this isn't just on offense, even though we've made changes on offense, this is a team issue and this is a coaching staff that we need to fix first before we go to the first floor and we'll deal with it “That with each other as players and coaches, because we’re all in this together, man,” Pierce noted. “Listen, not every decision is right, not every player plays correctly, but we have to do it together. We need to stop with the details and excuses and do our job as best we can.”