by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–The Raiders had started Matt McGloin and now all of a sudden the Raiders are starting quarterback Terrelle Pryor. He had a pretty nice run earlier in the season then he got dinged up and McGloin came in and had a few starts he looked okay and decided to go with McGloin for a few weeks to see what they have and now in week 17 their going back to Pryor.

There’s no rhyme or reason to it it’s a little strange but at a certain point the Raiders thought they had a shot here and they’ll go for it and then everything fell apart. Most of this is on the defensive side and the offense hasn’t been awful. Pryor is the guy the Raiders really need to evaluate and we’ve been saying this the last six weeks since McGloin took over.

Pryor is a more dynamic option back there and he’s the one with the highest ceiling and McGloin he looks okay there’s nothing wrong with the guy he’s not someone you look at and say this is someone whose going to lead us to the Super Bowl. He’s a caretaker, he’s a game manager, he’s a back up quarterback. There’s nothing wrong with that there’s plenty of room in this league for a back up quarterback.

You could look down at Dallas where quarterback Tony Romo got injured and back up Kyle Orton is going to start and take Romo’s place. The backup quarterback is something important and every team needs one. The Raiders aren’t in a position to be looking at a back up quarterback and to make sure the back up QB is any good. The Raiders need to find out if they have a starting quarterback.

Going forward everyone could see that McGloin was a back up and Pryor at least had some chance at being a starting quarterback. Pryor obviously has a lot of polishing up to do he’s someone who needs some work who needs to learn but you can’t learn until your out there on the field. The Raiders have kept him off the field for several weeks which really doesn’t make any sense.

Time and time again the threat with his legs really open things up for the Raiders and gave them an opportunity that would not otherwise exist and makes them a little more interesting to watch. It will be fun to see Pryor out there and it would be interesting to see if he could step in after being on the bench for so many weeks. It’s defintely going to be tougher going against the Denver Broncos this Sunday their the team that still has something to play for.

The Broncos aren’t going to play too hard, quarteback Peyton Manning got his touchdown record their the number on one or number two seed no matter what they get the Broncos got that home game either way. Denver might rest it’s players which could give the Raiders a chance in this one.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for Sportstalk Radio