With quarterback Derek Carr out for the remainder of the season, here are five Oakland Raiders who must step up.
The Oakland Raiders improved their record to 12-3 with a 33-25 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday, but suffered a notable loss when quarterback Derek Carr suffered a broken right fibula in the fourth quarter of the game. Carr is out indefinitely.
Losing a starting quarterback and an MVP candidate like Carr is a devastating development to an otherwise fantastic season for the Raiders. Oakland can still earn a first-round playoff bye, with an outside shot at home field advantage in the AFC, but those possibilities may not mean anything without Carr under center.
The Raiders are going to the playoffs for the first time since 2002, and they are a team on the rise with a bright future. Still, if the Raiders hope to make any noise in this year’s playoffs without Carr, these five players will need to step up in his absence.
5. K Sebastian Janikowski
The venerable Janikowski is having another solid season, with five of his six field goal misses coming from 50-plus yards out as he continues to get ample opportunities (eight this season) from that range. He did register his first two extra point misses of the season against the Colts on Saturday, one missed and one blocked, but the league-wide struggles in that area this season gives Janikowski some leeway.
The Raiders have played close games all season, with 11 one-possession margins and five wins by three points or less. Without Carr, the Raiders are sure to lose some of their offensive firepower and so they will need Janikowski to put points on the board every chance he gets. Come playoff time, Janikowski will be one of Oakland’s most important players.
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4. RB DeAndre Washington
Washington had the best game of his rookie season against the Colts, with 12 carries for 99 yards and two touchdowns along with one catch for 18 yards. He had been a healthy scratch for three straight games before totaling six touches in Week 15, so a breakout game on Saturday was unexpected, to say the least.
Latavius Murray and Jalen Richard also have prominent roles in Oakland’s backfield mix, and they will continue to barring injuries. But Washington was productive with a higher volume of work against the Colts, opportunities, and he should be heavily involved going forward.
The proverbial rookie “wall” may have been a thing for Washington as the November wound down and December started. But he appears to have busted through it now, albeit in a one-game sample and Washington may be ready to step up at a very important time for the Raiders. A strong running game will be key for the Raiders and January and Washington will certaily be in the mix.
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3. Latavius Murray
Murray is Oakland’s leading rusher this season, with 777 yards and 12 touchdowns on 190 carries through Saturday’s game. But a backfield committee that has included Washington and Richard has brought just four games with 19 or more carries thus far, and with Carr out the Raiders’ offense stands to become run-heavy with Murray as the likely early-down workhorse.
Murray has also proven to be a productive pass catcher, with 30 receptions this season and 41 catches in 2015. So even if he’s ceding most of the obvious passing down work to his backfield mates, Murray could find himself heavily involved in the Raiders’ passing game when he is on the field. Backup QB, Matt McGloin doesn’t have as strong of an arm as Carr, so Murray could be a key safety valve for the new starter should he find himself under pressure.
Murray has been outperformed by the combination of Washington and Richard more often than not this season. But he is clearly the one back of the three with the build to take around 20 carries in a game without breaking down, and Murray is the favorite for goal-line work as well. If he can do his part to keep the Raiders on-schedule and out of long yardage situations consistently, Murray will have stepped up very well with Carr out.
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2. WR Amari Cooper
A true No. 1 wide receiver can be immune to a quarterback change, and the expected drop-off in talent from a starter to a backup. Cooper has become that go-to guy for the Raiders this season, with 78 receptions for 1,110 yards through 15 games.
Cooper had a relatively quiet day against the Colts on Saturday, with four catches (on six targets) for 72 yards. But he showed signs of instant rapport with Matt McGloin with a clutch reception to extend a fourth quarter drive after Carr was injured, which bodes very well for the immediate future.
The Raiders’ offense will obviously have to change some with Carr sidelined, to a more run-oriented, conservative approach. But Cooper’s involvement should not be altered much, and if the Raiders do defy the odds and go far in the playoffs he will have to be on center stage.
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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.
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.
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