Gardner Minshew brings ‘aura’ for Raiders to rally around

The Raiders’ offense endured a particularly poor practice early in training camp, and no one even needed to watch the full session to realize it afterward.

The body language of the players said it all. As the Raiders’ star defensive players danced around the field at the end of the final team period, the offensive line chirped and complained about facing an uphill battle before pads came on.

A couple receivers hung their heads.

Gardner Minshew was perhaps the only offensive player who seemed unaffected.

The quarterback smiled as he took his helmet off and tossed his long, brown hair back, later acknowledging his belief of accepting the ups and downs as all part of the process.

“There’s nothing I’d rather be doing right now,” Minshew said. “This is such an incredible opportunity with such a great team, and I just couldn’t be more grateful for it.”

Minshew goes into every practice with the same two goals repeating in his mind — have fun and get better. The 28-year-old, sixth-year NFL veteran’s unbridled optimism and even-keeled nature played no small factor in him earning the Las Vegas Raiders’ quarterback job as they open the season at 1:05 p.m. today at the Los Angeles Chargers.

When coach Antonio Pierce announced that Minshew would start over incumbent Aidan O’Connell three weeks ago, he cited the quarterback’s attitude and how the rest of the team has responded to it before mentioning any of his playing attributes.

“His personality is infectious,” Pierce said. “His image is infectious. His leadership is infectious.”

Players praised Pierce last year when he took over as interim coach because of the way he encouraged them to be themselves and let their personalities shine. But it always seemed easy when his frontline players were those who fit perfectly with Pierce’s inadvertent “smoke our (stuff), talk our (stuff)” ethos born out of a postgame speech after the Raiders shocked the Chiefs on Christmas Day 2023 in Kansas City.

Cornerback Jack Jones high-stepping into the end zone after an interception return or edge rusher Maxx Crosby mimicking a kick through a window to celebrate a sack fit with Pierce’s fiery image dating to his days as a hard-hitting linebacker.

Pierce’s embrace of Minshew shows his status as a “player’s coach” applies to all walks of life. Minshew on the surface would seem an unnatural fit with the coach’s rah-rah reputation.

The Flowood, Miss., native is someone whose first leisure activity after signing with Las Vegas in free agency was catching the Dead & Company residency at Sphere. Minshew’s idea of a perfect weekend outside of football is packing up a van with enough food and a book to go camp out in nature.

“What’s the word the kids say now, aura?” defensive lineman Christian Wilkins joked. “Yeah, Gardner’s definitely got some aura. I love that dude. He’s a lot of fun to be around.”

Part of the reason why Minshew prioritizes enjoying every aspect of football — from the meetings to practices and everything in between — is because of how close he’s felt his playing days have come to ending on so many occasions. O’Connell and Minshew immediately had a bond because of the way they both walked on to play in college, but at least the former had attended a Division I program (Purdue).

Minshew had to start his playing journey at Northwest Mississippi Community College. He landed at East Carolina after one season but then decided to transfer to the University of Alabama as a backup for his final year of eligibility.

Minshew knew he was highly unlikely to ever play for the Crimson Tide, but he figured he could learn from then-coach Nick Saban and eventually serve as a graduate assistant to kick-start a coaching career. He ditched those plans when then-Washington State coach the late Mike Leach called to recruit him.

Minshew headed to Pullman, Wash., to give his childhood dream of reaching the NFL one last shot. He pulled it off, throwing for 4,779 yards and 38 touchdowns to become a sixth-round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2019 NFL Draft.

“He’s a football junkie,” Pierce said of what’s stood out most about getting to know Minshew. “We always talk about Maxx and Christian being the first guys in the building, but he’s not too far behind. And he stays late. He’s done a lot of things without a lot of hype and things we talk about throughout the building that are starting to show up a little bit. I think our team is taking notice of that.”

Minshew kept such long hours earlier in his career with the Philadelphia Eagles from 2021 to 2022 that he lived in the team facility’s parking lot for a couple stretches. He had purchased a former prison bus off a government auction website and converted it into a mobile home.

An added benefit for the frugal Minshew, who signed a two-year $25 million deal with the Raiders, back then were the free showers and food he had access to at team headquarters.

He’s since sold the bus — though he’s asked about it at almost every news conference — and downgraded to a van that he had shipped out to Henderson shortly after signing with the Raiders.

He’s not living in it, though, at least not full time as Minshew bought a residence close to the Raiders’ Intermountain Health Performance Center.

“He’s free-spirited,” Pierce said. “But more importantly, (he's) a great teammate. He loves to compete. His attitude, his purpose, each and every rep that he takes, you can see that there’s a driven player there that’s always been an underdog. That’s a good thing for the Raiders because it carries over to the rest of our team, and guys feed off of it.”

Pierce sees it as an asset that Minshew takes the bad days in stride by maintaining the same temperament. It’s a tranquility that’s come out of perspective with the Raiders being Minshew’s fourth team following stints with the Jaguars, Eagles and Colts.

He’s started games at every spot, compiling a respectable if not underrated career statistics line of 9,937 passing yards and 59 touchdowns with 24 interceptions off a 62.6% completion rate.

Minshew isn’t the type of leader who’s going to go helmet-to-helmet with a defender exchanging words; he’s more likely to laugh it off. He said listening to trash talk brings him great joy, but he doesn’t feel compelled to return it like seen in a viral clip with Crosby last season when he led the Colts to a win over the Raiders.

Far from nemeses, Minshew and Crosby are now fast friends as teammates. They can often be found joking together at the facility and have gotten together outside of the building too.

Count Crosby among those drawn toward Minshew’s cheerfulness.

The quarterback could, and maybe even thought he would, be on a different path at this point of his life, but there’s nothing he would enjoy more than everything that comes with being an NFL player.

“If you only like the games, that's like one percent of the time you're doing this, and the rest of time you’re miserable,” Minshew said. “That doesn't really make sense to me. So, I always just try to enjoy every second in the building. The locker room, the team atmosphere is something that's so special and something you never want to take for granted."

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or