OAKLAND, Calif. — Oakland Raiders fans will get a close look at their past and future at quarterback in Thursday night’s exhibition finale against the Seattle Seahawks.
Rookie Derek Carr will start and get ample playing time in place of injured Matt Schaub for the Raiders, while last season’s opening game starter in Oakland, Terrelle Pryor, should get significant playing time as he fights for a roster spot with the Seahawks.
After a promising start to last season, Pryor’s struggles eventually led him to lose his starting job in Oakland and then get traded to Seattle for a seventh-round pick in May’s draft.
With Tavaris Jackson entrenched as Russell Wilson’s backup, Pryor needs to show enough to persuade coach Pete Carroll to keep a third quarterback on the roster this season.
“He’s been a really good student of the game,” Carroll said. “He just dove into it, taking great pride in commanding in the huddle. Right from the start, he was very impressive right from the beginning. Got a good way about himself in handling it. We can call the whole offense. We can do everything that we want to do. He’s an explosive, dynamic football player. He’s done a good job.”
Pryor showed flashes of what he could do early last season for the Raiders, completing 68.1 percent of his passes for 845 yards, four touchdowns, two interceptions and a 97.6 passer rating in his first four starts. But he struggled –
after that and lost his starting job to Matt McGloin and lost the trust of his coaches.
“He’s still extremely athletic,” coach Dennis Allen said of Pryor. “He can make a lot of plays in the pocket, moving around in the pocket, creating. … Obviously, his speed is something that we’re certainly concerned about. So he’s shown a lot of the same things that we saw when he was here.”
