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The Las Vegas Raiders made a key addition to their quarterback room with the trade for Jarrett Stidham. The former New England Patriots backup has spent three years in Josh McDaniels’ offense so he’s got a strong understanding of the system. The trade brought the quarterback count on the roster to five so the team had to make a cut.
Garrett Gilbert was signed earlier in the offseason and he was another former Patriot with familiarity in McDaniels’ system. Stidham has more recent experience in the system so he’s a more valuable asset to the coach. With the trade for Stidham, the Raiders decided to cut Gilbert from the roster.
That leaves Derek Carr, Stidham, Nick Mullens and undrafted rookie Chase Garbers as the quarterbacks on the roster. Carr is the definitive starter but there should be some competition as to who will be his backup. Mullens has much more experience playing in games than Stidham so he should still have the upper hand. Stidham likely was added so that he could help teach the offense and not because McDaniels believes he can make an impact on the field if Carr gets hurt.
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Raiders Putting Trust in Carr
The Raiders are set to have backup quarterbacks who don’t have significant starting experience. That will be a change from the last two years as they had Marcus Mariota back up Carr and he started many games before heading to Las Vegas. Mullens has 17 career starts and has acquitted himself well in limited action while Stidham has yet to start an NFL game.
It’s clear that McDaniels has a lot of trust in Carr as a quarterback and his durability. He’s only missed two career regular season starts so there’s no reason to believe he’ll miss games this season. This is without a doubt Carr’s team in 2022.
Raiders Ranked 13th in Power Rankings
The Raiders have made some big moves this offseason to the front office, coaching staff and roster. While there are a lot of players returning, this is almost a completely different team from top to bottom. Las Vegas will likely be dark horse Super Bowl contenders heading into the season but many want to see the on-field product before they buy into the hype.
The Athletic recently released their post-draft power rankings and had the Raiders all the down at 13:
The big trade for Davante Adams and signing of quarterback Derek Carr to an extension are indications the new regime believes the Raiders are ready to be serious competitors right away. Our panel clearly still has questions, picking the Raiders fourth among the AFC West teams.
Every team in the AFC West was ranked ahead of the Raiders with the Kansas City Chiefs ranked the highest at No. 3. There’s no doubt that Raiders fans won’t be thrilled with the ranking but there are a lot of question marks with the team. They’ll have to prove how good they are on the field before people start to buy into them as contenders.
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