2 Raiders blunders make them look like the losers of the offseason

The Las Vegas Raiders are 1-2 after an especially embarrassing loss to the Carolina Panthers last Sunday. It's too early in the season for sweeping conclusions, but it's hard to feel great about the direction of this Raiders squad. Antonio Pierce is already threatening "business decisions" for slumping players and confidence is waning in veteran quarterback Gardner Minshew.

We saw flashes toward the tail end of last season once Pierce took over head coaching duties, but it has been a minute while the Raiders were earnestly competitive in the AFC West. The Chiefs and Chargers are on a different level, and Denver isn't the company you want to keep in the standings.

Minshew is just not up to par with contending quarterbacks around the NFL. You'd be hard-pressed to find a bonafide winning team without stability at the QB position. The Minnesota Vikings are the closest example to such a team, but Sam Darnold is quickly shedding his journeyman label in real time. Darnold, a former No. 3 pick, has long had the potential for a season like this. It's early, but the Vikings' supporting cast is stuffed with excellent pieces and Darnold is finally in a scheme that embraces his unique strengths and limits his more severe shortcomings.

It's much tougher sledding for Minshew in Las Vegas. The offensive line is in tatters and the playmaking talent drops off quickly once you move past the heavyweights, Davante Adams and Brock Bowers.

Worse than that, this offseason almost went in a completely different (and far better) direction for Las Vegas.

Raiders whiffed on potentially game-changing additions of Justin Fields, Kliff Kingsbury

The Raiders inked Minshew to a two-year, $25 million contract in free agency. It made sense at the time. Las Vegas didn't draft a quarterback and there was limited confidence in Aidan O'Connell, despite a reasonably successful rookie campaign. That said, the Raiders were also briefly connected to Justin Fields, who ended up with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the price of a sixth-round pick.

"Raiders, they talked [about a trade] a little bit," Fields said on the Not Just Football podcast (h/t Bleacher Report). "I don't know too much. Who else was in there I don't know, but a lot of teams had solidified quarterbacks who just got new contracts so I didn't want to be there."

Las Vegas obviously did not have a solidified quarterback. It would have been an even clearer path to starting than Pittsburgh, where Fields has flourished en route to a 3-0 record. Now, the Steelers' supporting cast is leagues better than what Fields would have dealt with in Las Vegas. Pittsburgh has won on the strength of its defense, not its offense, and Fields continues to display very distinct limitations.

That said, he's moving the chains well enough and playing efficient, mistake-free football (73.3 percent completion rate, only one interception through three weeks). With the right coordinator, Fields can absolutely captain a winning offense. As it so happens, the Raiders were connected to the perfect OC candidate for a running quarterback — Kliff Kingsbury — before he ultimately ended up in Washington.

According to Sam Fortier of the Washington Post, Kingsbury was offered a two-year contract by the Raiders. He wanted three years, which led him to the Commanders job. So far, so good, as Kingsbury has rookie dual-threat QB Jayden Daniels flourishing on the national stage. It's hard to play quarterback as a rookie — just ask Caleb Williams or Bo Nix — and Daniels looks positively exceptional, slinging it all over the field and using his legs to extend defenses to their breaking point.

Washington literally scored on every possession in last Monday's win over Cincinnati. The Commanders' offense might just be a wrecking crew, against all odds. The Raiders, meanwhile, signed Luke Getsy, who was responsible for the perpetually anemic offenses around Justin Fields in Chicago these last couple years. If only we could've seen the Raiders' offensive struggles coming...

This offseason was pretty clearly a sliding doors moment for the Raiders. Rather than Fields and Kingsbury bringing a new flavor to the Las Vegas offense, that fandom is stuck watching Gardner Minshew try to salvage what is quite possibly the least effective scheme in the NFL.