Save the season:
Raiders backup Matt McGloin must fill in after Derek Carr breaks a leg.
The Oakland Raiders weren’t taking any chances with Matt McGloin in March.
They put a second-round restricted tender on their No. 2 quarterback, eliminating the possibility another team could sign McGloin without the Raiders receiving compensation.
Added cost: a little less than $900,000, which certainly would be money well spent if McGloin can do enough in place of injured MVP candidate Derek Carr to keep the Raiders’ magical season from falling apart with Carr’s broken leg.
Carr’s leg appeared to be pinned when he was sacked by Indianapolis Colts outside linebacker Trent Cole in Saturday’s game. He had to be helped off the field by trainers and was unable to put weight on the leg when leaving the game.
“It’s very sad,” Raiders left tackle Donald Penn said. “I’m very disappointed in myself because it was my guy that got him. I’ve been great all year. I was engaged with my guy, I took another step and my foot just slipped from up under me. I wish I could have that play back.”
The Raiders are 12-3, on the way to the playoffs for the first time since 2002, in position to secure the AFC West title if they beat the Denver Broncos in Week 17 or the Kansas City Chiefs lose to the San Diego Chargers.
Now, the Raiders are turning to a onetime Penn State walk-on who hasn’t started a regularseason NFL game in three years.
McGloin, 27, never signed an offer sheet from another team, which the Raiders would have had the right to match or receive a second-round pick if they didn’t. (Had they given McGloin the low tender, they would have received nothing if he had signed an offer sheet and they didn’t match, since he was undrafted in 2013.)
The numbers — eight touchdown passes, eight interceptions and a 76.1 passer rating — weren’t off the charts in McGloin’s six starts (one win) for a terrible Raiders team as a rookie in 2013 after an injury to Terrelle Pryor.
But this isa quarterbackdeficient league in which Brock Osweiler can get $37 million fully guaranteed from the Houston Texans off of seven starts with the Broncos and the Los Angeles Rams can be scared enough of losing Case Keenum that he gets the first-round tender.
Protecting anybody you think can play the most important position is good business.
Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie’s willingness to pay McGloin about $2.559 million this season — top-10 backup quarterback money — demonstrated the team’s belief in him and the value he brought to the quarterback room with Carr, 25, who had bounced back in a big way from his regression late last season before Saturday’s crushing injury.
The alternatives would have been to spend $2 million on a veteran backup such as Matt Cassel, who’s taking over for the Tennessee Titans after Marcus Mariota suffered a similar issue Saturday to Carr’s, or back up Carr with a rookie such as Connor Cook, the Raiders’ fourthround pick who now slots in as No. 2 behind McGloin.
Raiders coach Jack Del Rio said Carr would need surgery — NFL.com reported that it would be Dec. 27 — and is out indefinitely.
The odds seem strong the injury will end his season.
The hope isn’t for McGloin to be Carr, though McGloin did connect on a big third-down strike as the Raiders iced the win against the Colts. They’ll lean on a very good offensive line, two top receivers, a solid running back and an improving defense led by elite edge player Khalil Mack, keeping games from falling on McGloin’s shoulders.
Frankly, if McGloin were anywhere close to Carr’s caliber, the tender wouldn’t have stopped somebody from coming after him in March. But the Raiders made the decision then that McGloin was a guy who could help them get by in a pinch, and they’re about to find out if they were right.