Marcus Mariota return to practice means he could make Raiders preseason debut vs Rams
On the final play of the Raiders’ practice at Allegiant Stadium on August 8, QB Marcus Mariota came up lame. He hasn’t practiced since then and didn’t appear in the team’s preseason opener against the Seahawks last Saturday. Instead, everyone got a heavy dose of Nate Peterman, who played all but one snap.
Head coach Jon Gruden said in the lead-up to the game that Mariota was “very questionable” to play. Though Mariota didn’t end up playing, he stayed suited up for the entirety of the game, suggesting that he could be an emergency option if needed. Which also suggests he was close to returning.
Tuesday, the Raiders had their first practice since Saturday’s game, which was also the first with fans at Allegiant Stadium. And taking the field was Marcus Mariota.
Their next couple practices will take place in LA with the Rams and then on Saturday they will face the Rams in their second preseason game.
Derek Carr and the starters will get a great deal of practice against the Rams starters over these next two days, so don’t expect to see much of them on Saturday.
The team would undoubtedly like to see a good amount of snaps from Mariota after seeing only Peterman last week. Carr was hoping to see Mariota play in that game.
“I hope he doesn’t play too much because then someone is going to want to try and come get him,” Carr said of the prospect of Mariota being in demand by other teams. “We enjoy having him around. Honestly, out of all the quarterbacks I’ve been around, I could hang around with him all day long. So, hopefully when he gets in there he balls out. . . Marcus has worked his tail off. I think he’s finally getting to a healthy place where he feels good. I know coming off of surgeries it’s tough.”
This would be Mariota’s Raiders preseason debut because there was no preseason last year. And even if there had been, he was injured at that time, causing him to ultimately miss the first ten weeks of the season, and appearing in just one game; the team’s week 14 game against the Chargers, coming in for the injured Derek Carr for three quarters.
