Jimmy Garoppolo benched in Las Vegas after Raiders fire Josh McDaniels

BOSTON -- As if the firing of the head coach, general manager and offensive coordinator wasn't enough of a shift for the Las Vegas Raiders, the team is also making a change at quarterback.

Just hours after the team fired Josh McDaniels, Dave Ziegler and Mick Lombardi, interim head coach Antonio Pierce and the adjusting coaching staff made the decision to demote quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to backup status.

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported that news on Wednesday morning, noting that source within the Raiders' organization said that rookie Aidan O'Connell is the best quarterback on the roster.

A fourth-round pick out of Purdue, O'Connell has started one game and played in two this season. He threw no touchdowns and one interception in his lone start, a loss in Los Angeles against the Chargers. But he was 10-for-13 for 75 yards with a touchdown and a pick against the Bears in Week 7, when he replaced Brian Hoyer in a loss.

While O'Connell hasn't exactly blown anyone away with his performance thus far in the NFL (or in college, for that matter), Wednesday's move is more about how poorly Garoppolo has performed this year.

Despite playing in just six games, and despite ranking 28th in the NFL in pass attempts, Garoppolo leads the league with nine interceptions this season. And unlike Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen, he's not offsetting his high pick total with touchdown passes, as Garoppolo has just seven touchdowns on the season. His struggles were laid bare on national television on Monday night, as he badly missed Davante Adams multiple times while also taking six sacks and looking generally overwhelmed in a loss in Detroit. 

A second-round pick by the Patriots back in 2014, Garoppolo has always been somewhat limited as an NFL quarterback, both in terms of his performance and his inability to stay healthy. Yet he entered this season with 87 touchdowns, 42 interceptions, and a 40-17 record in the regular season as a starter. (He's 4-2 in the playoffs, though he has four touchdown passes and six interceptions in those six games.) This year, however, he's 3-3 as a starter, and the 7-to-9 TD-to-INT ratio is downright ugly.

And among QBs who have started games this season, his 78.1 passer rating is only better than Zach Wilson, Tyson Bagent, teammate/replacement Aidan O'Connell, Ryan Tannehill, Daniel Jones, Mitch Trubisky, P.J. Walker, and teammate Brian Hoyer.

With Ziegler and McDaniels -- both former employees of the Patriots -- making the call to give Garoppolo a three-year, $72.75 million contract with $45 million guaranteed and $33.75 million fully guaranteed this past offseason, the quarterback's subpar play is not at all what the organization had in mind when bringing him in to replace Derek Carr. 

Now, Garoppolo is set to be a very expensive backup for a team in major transition.