Had the Las Vegas Raiders not fired head coach Antonio Pierce and general manager Tom Telesco, the quarterback room would likely look very different. Pierce recently revealed that he wanted former Colorado star Shedeur Sanders.
That’s not a surprise, as Sanders and the Raiders were flirting prior to the draft. Deion Sanders went so far as to tell Pierce to draft his sons. However, who the team drafted at quarterback wouldn’t have been up to Pierce,
If he had kept his job, Telesco likely would’ve stayed on as general manager, and it sounds like the two didn’t agree on quarterback. According to Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Telesco had his eyes on former Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart.
“I think that’s who [Pierce] preferred and had he still been the coach he would have fought for Shedeur Sanders,” Bonsignore said on Raider Nation Radio’s “Morning Tailgate.”
“It makes a lot of sense when we talk about all the connections that Shedeur had to the Raiders. I just think that if he and Tom Telesco had still been here, I think the General Manager would have been pounding the table for somebody else, and that would have been Jaxson Dart.”
Telesco ‘Loved’ Dart
Sanders was considered by many to be a better prospect than Dart ahead of the draft, but the former Ole Miss star was taken in the first round, while Sanders fell to the fifth. Bonsignore thinks the Raiders would’ve been willing to take Sanders, but Dart was the player Telesco really coveted.
“The former general manager loved Jaxson Dart to the point where he literally went to, I don’t know if I’ve said this publicly or on air, but Tom Telesco bought a ticket. Bought a ticket. He didn’t go, usually general managers go to college games and sit in the booth, but he didn’t want anybody to know that he was there,” Bonsignore said. “It was the Gator Bowl, I believe. Whatever bowl game Ole Miss was in, he goes, I bought a ticket, sat in the stands to watch him one more time play live. That was who the Raiders really liked.
“Now, it was, you never know how a draft’s going to play out, and it’s still January. They both got fired in January, so a lot can happen in the draft. So what I’ll say is, I think the first preference would have been Jaxson Dart somewhere along the line, maybe not with the sixth pick, but somewhere along the line. And if they didn’t get Jaxson Dart somehow, someway, I do think Shedeur Sanders would have been a Raider. I don’t think the Raiders would have passed on him. … So I do agree with Antonio on that part.”
Dart Showing Signs of Promise
It’s not a surprise Telesco preferred Dart over Sanders. He’s a general manager who values traits. Sanders was a more successful college quarterback, but Dart is more athletic and has a bigger arm.
The New York Giants ended up selecting him in the first round, and he’s looked promising so far. Though he’s dealt with concussion issues, Dark has thrown 10 touchdowns to three interceptions. He looks like he’s going to be a real impact quarterback. If Telesco was able to draft him, it may have helped him and Pierce stay employed a little longer.
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