The final day of Raiders training camp in late August took place without quarterback Marcus Mariota. At the time Jon Gruden said it wasn’t serious and the 27-year-old backup quarterback would be back in a few days.
That held true as a week later, Mariota was back on the practice field. But whatever the issue was, it apparently was more serious than first thought. Today the team officially placed him on injured reserve, which means the team will be without him for at least the first three games of this season according to 2020 injured reserve rules.
Update: The injury is a pectoral strain according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
There were some signs Mariota wasn’t quite right if you read between the lines. Namely the recent restructuring of Nathan Peterman’s contract, paying him $1 million guaranteed, instead of the $2.133 million he was making that was not guaranteed. If Mariota was good to go, they may have cut Peterman at which point they’d owe him nothing.
To fill the roster spot, the team brought back linebacker and special teams captain Kyle Wilber. This is the second season in a row Wilber has been among the roster cuts to get down to 53 players only to be brought right back the next day.
Also, with Mariota down for at least three games, the Raiders brought back quarterback DeShone Kizer onto the practice squad. Kizer had been on the team’s offseason roster last year.
