Last season, the Las Vegas Raiders didn’t have a great situation at backup quarterback. Mike Glennon and DeShone Kizer didn’t inspire a lot of confidence and didn’t put any pressure on Derek Carr. The team decided to move on from both of them this offseason.
This led to Glennon heading to the Jacksonville Jaguars for training camp. Despite them having arguably the worst quarterback situation in the NFL, Glennon didn’t make the roster. However, the team did announce that he’ll be on the practice squad.
We have signed 15 players to our practice squad.
This season, each club may have a maximum of 16 practice squad players, including 6 practice squad veterans.
For a backup, Glennon actually does have a decent amount of starting experience and doesn’t have bad career numbers. It’s a bit of a surprise he couldn’t make Jacksonville’s roster but it also seems like they’re all in on trying to land Trevor Lawrence in the draft.
Will Kizer Find a Team?
In Kizer’s case, it was clear he didn’t have a long-term future with the Raiders after they signed Marcus Mariota. Jon Gruden loves Nathan Peterman so he’s always been the favorite to be the third-stringer. Las Vegas moved on from Kizer back in May and has yet to find a new home.
He’s had a couple of workouts but there doesn’t appear to be much interest in signing him. In the games that he has played, he’s put up the worst possible number imaginable. In his defense, that’s when he was with the Cleveland Browns. Perhaps a change of scenery on a solid team could be just what the former second-round pick needs. He’ll probably get another chance at some point.
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Did the Raiders Overpay Marcus Mariota?
When free agency started, the Raiders pounced on Mariota quickly and made him the highest-paid backup in the NFL. This led some to believe that he was being groomed to eventually take over for Carr. Several months later and there’s absolutely no chance he’s going to be taking that starting job anytime soon.
Reports have indicated that Mariota has been really bad in camp. This led Raiders insider Vic Tafur of The Athletic to question what the team was thinking when they signed him:
Now, the skeptical sort might say that offering to make Mariota the highest-paid backup quarterback in the NFL is not exactly tough love. Especially when the Raiders threw in another $1.7 million in incentives in case he actually plays. Also: There was no rush to sign him.
The market for backup quarterbacks was not exactly booming last offseason; former starters like Jameis Winston and Cam Newton both ended up signing for a little over $1 million each.
To spend $7.5 million on someone who is now described by [general manager Mike] Mayock and Gruden as a rebuilding project sounds like some revisionist history.
Tafur is 100% right. The Raiders brought Mariota in to at least compete for the starting job. That doesn’t mean they thought he was going to win the job but they had to imagine he’d be more impressive than he has been. Mariota does have talent. You don’t get selected as the number two overall pick in a draft if you don’t. However, it sounds like he’s more of a project for the team. If Carr ends up playing really well this season, it’s highly unlikely there’s any kind of competition or controversy next offseason. That would make the Mariota signing a giant waste of money that could’ve been used to obtain somebody like Jadeveon Clowney.
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Ex-Raiders QB Lands on AFC Team’s Practice Squad