With the draft over and most free agents signed, we have a pretty good idea as to who will be vying for a spot on the Las Vegas Raiders Week One roster.
It may be relatively pointless to speculate on how position battles will play out roughly 10 weeks before training camp starts, but hey, what else is there to do? Over the next couple of weeks, we will go position by position, breaking down who will make the team and what the pecking order will be.
This first installment will address the quarterback position.
Projected Raiders Depth Chart
- Derek Carr
- Marcus Mariota
Practice Squad: Deshone Kizer
Breakdown
There has been a lot of talk of a battle for the starting job between Carr and Mariota, but make no mistake about it, this job is Carr’s to lose. For Mariota to win the job, several things would have to happen.
First, Carr would have to regress or at least not continue to improve in Gruden’s offense. Second, Mariota would have to master Gruden’s voluminous playbook in a wildly unorthodox offseason. Finally, Mariota has to actually outplay Carr. None of these things seem all that likely, let alone all three. Could something happen later on in the season where Mariota winds up taking over? Sure, but I would be shocked if Carr were not starting week one.
Related: It’s time for Derek Carr to take the Raiders back to the playoffs
There will also be another competition taking place at the quarterback position this offseason. This battle will pit Nathan Peterman against DeShone Kizer to see who gets to be stashed on the practice squad or injured reserve.
I have Kizer slotted into this role because Gruden has not seen as much of him yet. This will be Peterman’s second training camp with the Raiders so the head coach will have seen all he needs to from him. Unless Peterman somehow develops so much to the point that he actually pushes Mariota for the backup job, Gruden will have little reason to keep him around.
So that’s it for our first installment. Next time, we will take a look at the running backs and fullback.
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