Derek Carr injury: 5 Raiders who must step up

1. Matt McGloin

Just because it’s obvious doesn’t make it untrue. McGloin will move up a spot on the depth chart with Carr out, and barring his own significant injury he will start any games the Raiders have left this season.

Carr’s arrival as a rookie in 2014 coincided with McGloin seeing very little regular season action, with just 55 pass attempts over the last three seasons (six games played) to this point. But McGloin did start six games for the Raiders as an undrafted rookie in 2013, and he completed close to 56 percent of his passes (118-for-211) for 1,547 yards with eight touchdowns and eight interceptions in seven games of action that season.

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The Raiders seem to have a lot of faith in McGloin, and his 1-5 mark as an NFL starter can’t be held against him with Oakland finishing 4-12 in 2013. The structure around McGloin should put him in

structure around McGloin should put him in position to succeed. But he’ll have to competently straddle the line between “don’t f* it up” and making crucial, maybe occasionally risky, throws to prove he can be a threat to opposing defenses with his arm.

The Raiders will certainly change up their gameplan to suit McGloin’s strengths. If the long-time backup can avoid turning the football over, he’ll give the talented Raiders roster a chance to stay in games.

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The AFC playoff field isn’t shaping up to be particularly strong. If the Raiders can win next week to lock up the two seed and a home playoff game, the Silver and Black may just be able to find its way into the AFC Championship game. After that, things will get a lot tougher but stranger things have happened. Hell, the Cleveland Browns won a football game yesterday.