HENDERSON, Nev. — There were some familiar faces back on the Raiders practice field Monday. There was Kyle Wilber, the former and future special-teams captain who had been released two days earlier. The veteran linebacker returned because the Raiders put struggling rookie Tanner Muse on injured reserve with a new toe injury.
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And there was DeShone Kizer, last season’s No. 3 quarterback …
Wait, why was Kizer back? He was home on the couch during training camp.
Well, a scan of the field revealed that backup quarterback Marcus Mariota was absent. Hours later, the Raiders announced that he was being placed on IR. (Swing tackle Sam Young is taking his roster spot.) The Raiders won’t say why Mariota is being placed on IR, but he missed a week of training camp in late August and Jon Gruden mentioned then that the quarterback had lingering ankle and shoulder issues. It is not known if the Raiders knew about the ankle injury before signing him.
The NFL Network, though, reported Monday that Mariota has a pectoral injury. Who knows where that came from, but it could explain Mariota’s sloppy performance throwing the ball at training camp. Mariota has not been made available to local media once since signing, so he has never been asked about the injuries.
Nathan Peterman takes over as Derek Carr’s backup, while Kizer joins the team’s 16-man practice squad. The NFL changed its rules this season because of the pandemic, so Mariota could return to the 53-man roster in three weeks.
The Raiders gave Mariota a guaranteed $7.5 million (with another $1.7 million in incentives) this season in hopes that he could push Carr for the starting job. But the former Titan did not look good at camp and Gruden and general manager Mike Mayock quickly started calling him “a rebuilding project.”
Between Mariota, recently cut safety Damarious Randall ($1.5 million guaranteed) and just-traded third-round pick Lynn Bowden Jr. ($1 million paid in signing bonus), the Raiders currently have nothing to show for that $10 million spent this offseason.
Gruden doesn’t care about players’ salaries or dead money. He just wants to win. While none of those three players would have had a huge role in Sunday’s season opener at Carolina, that money probably could have been used to sign a difference-maker.
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Kizer, meanwhile, was active for three weeks last season as the team’s No. 2 quarterback, after beating out Mike Glennon. But Kizer lost the job back to Glennon in the season finale. Kizer knows the offense better than any other quarterback off the street and got the call when the Raiders decided to temporarily (?) pull the plug on Mariota.
(Photo: John Locher / Associated Press)