The Oakland Raiders are walking a fine line when it comes to their quarterback situation. After Derek Carr went down on Christmas Eve, Matt McGloin was forced into the starting role. An injury in Week 17 to McGloin means rookie Connor Cook will make his first career start in the first round of the NFL playoffs.
He's the first player in NFL history to make his first career start in the playoffs, but things could get weird at quarterback if things go poorly for Oakland.
Should something happen to Cook and McGloin, the guy under center would be ... wide receiver Michael Crabtree.
"Anybody goes down, I'm going to be the quarterback," Crabtree said this week, via ESPN. "Only two quarterbacks suiting [up], so if one goes down, that's when the panic starts."
The good news for Oakland is they have a healthy enough McGloin in place to back up Cook against the Texans. It could even involve him playing if Cook struggles.
Matt McGloin is healthy enough to backup Cook. Makes me wonder if Cook could be pulled if he struggles
— Gregg Rosenthal (@greggrosenthal) January 7, 2017
The bad news is, again, Cook's a rookie and, in particularly devastating news, he'll be without his left tackle in Donald Penn on Saturday.
If something happens to Cook and then McGloin is injured again, you're going to see Crabtree under center. It's precisely the sort of thing that could spice up an otherwise fairly underwhelming wild-card game.
