It's entirely fitting that Jon Gruden's disastrous first season back in charge of the Raiders is ending with the addition of Nathan Peterman to the team's practice squad. Peterman might be one of the worst quarterbacks in the history of the NFL and the Raiders are one of the worst teams in football right now. It's a match made in football heaven, and the pairing might last longer than just the final two weeks of the season.
On Thursday, a day after the Raiders signed Peterman, Gruden revealed that his plans for Peterman likely involve the quarterback remaining with the team into the offseason, when Gruden hopes to "restart" him.
"There's a good chance of that," Gruden said, per NBC Sports Bay Area. "Hopefully we can take him into the offseason program and see if we can't restart him and get him going."
This isn't entirely surprising given the gushing review Gruden, then with ESPN, gave him before the 2017 draft, when he said Peterman is "the draft's most pro-ready QB."
Peterman's been anything but a pro-ready quarterback to this point in his career. With the Bills, Peterman started four games and made eight appearances. In those outings, he completed 52.3 percent of his passes, averaged 4.2 yards per pass, threw a touchdown on 2.3 percent of his passes and an interception on 9.2 percent of his passes, and generated a 32.5 passer rating. As our Jared Dubin once wrote, "his 32.5 passer rating is several points worse than it would have been if he had spiked the ball on every play."
Gruden did temper expectations by providing a reminder that Peterman isn't even on the active roster yet, which means there's no guarantee whatsoever he'll be with the Raiders for long.
"He's on the practice squad right now," Gruden said. "I want to reiterate that."
There's no need to lower our expectations. The Raiders' quarterback room is now filled by $25 million man Derek Carr, AJ "God forbid I get in there" McCarron, and Nathan Peterman. Consider our expectations set at the lowest possible level.
