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With the Raiders' 2012 season effectively done with a 3-10 record following their latest loss, some people are starting to call for coach Dennis Allen to give backup quarterback Terrelle Pryor a go, Paul Guiterrez of CSN Bay Area writes.
Pryor was drafted in the third-round of the 2011 supplemental draft by the Raiders, but has seen minimal time at best on the field. Gutierrez writes that the Raiders need to put Pryor out there just to see what they actually have.
But not with the sense that starter Carson Palmer is being benched, or with the understanding that backup Matt Leinart has been surpassed on the depth chart. Rather, the Raiders need to see what Pryor can do in a game, against legit NFL defensive players, and not the third-stringers and washouts he faced in the exhibition season.
Allen seems to agree with Gutierrez, wanting to give Pryor some snaps but also balancing the desire to win in the future with the desire to win games now - something he feels Palmer gives them their best chance to do.
"I think the biggest thing is to start getting him in a game, a little bit of game action," Allen said Friday. "I'm not ready to say that he would be a starter. I think that Carson, obviously, he's made a couple of mistakes the last couple of weeks but yet, Carson's been one of the reasons why, specifically, earlier in the year, why we had a chance in certain games."
Palmer is on pace to come close to Rich Gannon's single season franchise passing record he set in 2002 as he led the Raiders to the Super Bowl. This year, with Palmer not leading the Raiders anywhere anyone on the team wants to go, the clamor to see what their backup looks like - even if it is just for a little bit or so - grows.
"The time is growing nearer -- if it has not already passed -- for the Raiders to throw third-string quarterback Terrelle Pryor into a game. Maybe even start him in a not-so-hostile atmosphere in Oakland against the Chiefs, to give him a better opportunity to succeed."
Allen has three more games to make his decision, but with the Raiders currently mired in a six-game losing streak, concerns of breaking that slump are reigning supreme in the Raiders' clubhouse now.