The NFL playoffs will be in wild card weekend. Here are all eight teams playing on wild card weekend’s quarterback situation and how they stack up.
The 2016 NFL regular season was so yesterday. Now, we are on to the best part of the NFL season: the NFL Playoffs. This weekend will be wild card weekend in the NFL with eight of the 12 playoff teams playing in their first playoff games.
Since this is an increasingly quarterback-driven league, let’s take a look at the eight teams playing on wild card weekend and how their quarterback situations look. Needless to say, some are better than others.
The 2016 Oakland Raiders had a phenomenal regular season, going 12-4 and making it to the franchise’s first AFC Playoffs since the 2002 NFL season. Oakland was poised to be a serious Super Bowl 51 contender, but seeing MVP candidate quarterback Derek Carr break his leg in Week 16’s win over the Indianapolis Colts brought Oakland’s Super Bowl aspirations to a crashing halt.
Carr was everything for this Raiders team. He was the galvanizing force that made this year’s team such an incredible watch through the first 16 weeks of the 2016 NFL season. Seeing him out of the lineup with a fractured foot is totally a cruel ending to the Raiders’ awesome season.
The Raiders trotted out serviceable backup Matt McGloin in the final game and a half of 2016, but got hurt in Week 17’s whimper of a loss to the rival Denver Broncos. McGloin’s injury forced rookie third-string quarterback Connor Cook on to the field. Cook was a fourth-round pick out Michigan State and the Raiders did end up taking him ahead of Dak Prescott in the 2016 NFL Draft.
At Michigan State, Cook was a big-game player for the Spartans, but was awful in his final collegiate game against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the 2015 Cotton Bowl Classic. Oakland will have to devise a game plan that mitigates potential mistakes from Cook.
The Raiders are dynamic enough on the ground game to beat the Houston Texans on Saturday, but they do not have a reliable defense that can sustain leads. Oakland might have to win a low-scoring game on Saturday in Houston to advance. Can Cook do it? Maybe, as Houston’s quarterback situation isn’t great either.