Raiders Have A Quarterback Competition, Just Not the One Everybody Expected

As it turns out there is a quarterback competition in Las Vegas, after all. Just not the one everyone was talking about a few months ago.

The longer training camp continues on it’s current course, it sounds like there is a chance Nathan Peterman might have a chance at being the Raiders no. 2 quarterback.

“I think obviously they gave [Mariota] a pretty good chunk of change to push Derek Carr, and I think now hearing Mayock and Gruden talking about the injuries, that we’re going to re-program him, we’re going to reboot him and get him going again, but $7.5 million is a lot for a reboot,” The Athletic’s Vic Tafur said on Wednesday during the State of the Nation podcast. “If that’s the case I think you could have spent a little bit less… I think they are finding out that what they thought they had originally back in the spring is not what they have, again but not a concern thing, because they have Derek Carr, who is always dominating at training camp.”

For what it’s worth, Mariota has a $9.125 million cap number this year and a $10.1 million cap number next year. For that kind of money, the Raiders had to be hoping for a little more from Mariota at this point in training camp.

“I think Mariotta will be fine as a backup. I think he’s the highest paid backup in the league which is not a great thing to be,” Tafur continued on Mariota. “But it’s just been one of those weird details at camp watching every day and like ‘huh, he doesn’t look good.’ And why? That’s the other question. But if it is injuries, and he had all these things wrong with him last year, then you can question the signing a little bit I guess.”

Regardless of whether Peterman wins the no. 2 job or not, the Raiders won’t have any choice but to keep him around. In the COVID-19 era of professional football, two quarterbacks isn’t enough. Peterman knows Gruden’s offense and Gruden by all accounts is a big fan of Peterman… which somewhat makes you wonder why the Raiders didn’t show a little more faith in him in the first place.

twitter: @raidersbeat

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12 thoughts on “Raiders Have A Quarterback Competition, Just Not the One Everybody Expected

  1. Don’t put any pressure on all your quarterbacks. Let them come out of their mold’s on there own pace. There’s too much emphasis on who is better, they’re both great QB’s , they know their strength and weaknesses, I think everyone is expecting a Tom Brady overnight, give them a chance, they will be better DUO on this fantastic team, go Raiders

    1. What are you talking about? Both are FAR from being great… If they were Mariota would still be a Titan and not the highest paid backup in the league…

  2. I’m telling you sometimes you hit it big like Gruden and Mayock did in last years draft and sometimes you get klunker of move like Mariota which could hamper you financially. But if he’s a project then maybe they can get something on their investment next year probably 2nd string! This year I feel he’ll be 3rd string most if not all of the season.

  3. Since I went to their very first practice back in 59, @ St. Mary’s I had been a fan. Never missed a game. But they moved to I am again a 49r fan like I was in grammar school. I hope they have no luck in the new place

  4. Coach knows what he is doing we will be a good team and the silver and black will just win Baby.

  5. I can’t see what’s happening in camp so I have no extra insight than anyone else. But what info know is that Gruden runs one of the most complex offenses in the league, and the onus of it running smoothly is on the QB with their reads and decision making. In a complex system reps is the best way to see those things in real time. Carr improved tremendously from year 1 to 2 in running Gruden’s system. It looks like Peterman is now showing the same advantage with a year under his belt.

    So it’s likely Mariota is going through the learning curve now. When you are a half second behind in knowing exactly where to go with the ball it’s going to throw everything else off. Assuming that he’s healthy and as smart as advertised, I’d say he’ll look a lot better by about week 10 or so.

    Of course I’m hoping that Carr is lights out and we never have to see backups except for running out the clock with big leads and in week 18 when they are resting starters for the playoffs.

  6. Why dont we let the professionals handle the team and us fans just keep supporting there decisions. Dont have to like it but you could wimp out and like the 9ers too. I love the past current and future Raiders no matter where they play and vegas is fun also.

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