• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar

San Francisco Sports Today

San Francisco Sports News Continuously Updated

  • Baseball
    • A’s
    • Giants
  • Football
    • 49’ers
    • Raiders
  • Basketball
    • Kings
    • Warriers
  • Sharks
  • Earthquakes
  • Colleges
    • San Jose State
    • Stanford
    • University of California, Berkeley

Raiders implementing different plays for QB Marcus Mariota than with Derek Carr

July 31, 2021 by Raiders Wire Leave a Comment

Raiders training camp ramped up a bit Saturday. The first five days are what they call their acclimation period, and today the players had easily their most extensive team sessions of camp so far, giving us our best look at the talent on the team.

The takeaway from it was just how good Marcus Mariota looks compared to last year when he was fighting through a torn pectoral muscle. Not to mention he had just come back several other injuries. Ultimately, he would be placed on injured reserve and miss the first ten weeks of the season.

Based on what Mariota did in his one game appearance last season, it isn’t a matter of shock that he can play. It’s just that we have not seen him perform at a high level in a training camp setting yet. But head coach Jon Gruden’s opinion of the former number two overall pick remains high.

“He’s a great talent,” Gruden said of Mariota. “He took a team to the playoffs in the Titans went from worst to first with him. And he’s got as much football character as anybody you’ll meet. He’s a great athlete and a great teammate and we’re excited to have him here.”

What we saw today was the fleet-footed, big-armed talent that made him a top draft pick and starter for four seasons in Tennessee. We also saw several instances where plays were clearly drawn up to play to his strengths as an athlete. Something Gruden would loved to have been able to do in last year’s camp, but never really had the chance.

“Last year was hard because he was hurt all the time. He didn’t have the offseason program and then he missed ten weeks of the season,” Gruden added. “This complex thing we’re trying to pull off here, I don’t know what you saw today, but we’re not going to call exactly the same plays when Marcus is in the game than when Derek is in the game. You wouldn’t either. That’s why we have a very fast playbook. And I think for Marcus to be great, he has to run plays that he’s good at and he likes. That’s what we do for every quarterback. I was excited today with some of the things that we looked at and there’s a lot more in the bubble that we got to get to later in the next couple weeks.”

Last season the only time we saw Mariota was when Derek was injured. He entered the week 15 game against the Chargers in the first quarter and played the rest of the way. Fairly standard for a backup quarterback. But these different plays and Mariota’s different skillset, particularly as a runner, allows the Raiders to put him in the game as a change-up should they choose to do so. In the sam vein as what the Saints did with Taysom Hill. That makes Mariota all the more intriguing as far more than a contingency plan.

Like this article?

Sign up for the Raiders Wire email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning

An error has occured

Please re-enter your email address.

Thanks for signing up!

You’ll now receive the top Raiders Wire stories each day directly in your inbox.

Filed Under: Raiders

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • George Kittle talks about the second year of Tight End University
  • (no title)
  • (no title)
  • (no title)
  • (no title)

Categories

  • 49'ers
  • A's
  • Earthquakes
  • Giants
  • Kings
  • Raiders
  • San Jose State
  • Sharks
  • Stanford
  • Uncategorized
  • University of California, Berkeley
  • Warriers

Archives

  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • July 2019

Our Partners

All Sports

  • San Francisco Chronicle
  • San Francisco Examiner
  • The Mercury News
  • 247 Sports
  • Bleacher Report
  • Forgotten 5
  • Golden Gate Sports
  • The Sports Fan Journal
  • The Spun
  • USA Today

Baseball

  • San Francisco Giants
  • Oakland A's
  • Last Word On Baseball - Oakland A's
  • Last Word On Baseball - San Francisco Giants
  • MLB Trade Rumors - A's
  • MLB Trade Rumors - Giants
  • White Cleat Beat
  • Around The Foghorn
  • Athletics Nation
  • McCovey Chronicles

Basketball

  • Golden State Warriors
  • Sacramento Kings
  • A Royal Pain
  • Amico Hoops - Kings
  • Amico Hoops - Warriors
  • Blue Man Hoop
  • Golden State Of Mind
  • Hoops Hype - Warriors
  • Hoops Hype - Kings
  • Hoops Rumors - Warriors
  • Hoops Rumors - Kings
  • Lets Go Warriors
  • Last Word On Pro Basketball - Golden State
  • Last Word On Pro Basketball - Sacramento
  • Pro Basketball Talk - Warriors
  • Pro Basketball Talk - Kings
  • Real GM - Warriors
  • Real GM - Kings
  • Sactown Royalty

Football

  • San Francisco 49ers
  • Las Vegas Raiders
  • 49ers Gab
  • Just Blog Baby
  • Last Word On Pro Football
  • NFL Trade Rumors - San Francisco 49ers
  • NFL Trade Rumors - Las Vegas Raiders
  • Niners Nation
  • Niner Noise
  • Niners Wire
  • Our Turf Football
  • Pro Football Rumors - 49ers
  • Pro Football Rumors - Raiders
  • Pro Football Talk - 49ers
  • Pro Football Talk - Raiders
  • Raiders Wire
  • Silver And Black Pride
  • Total 49ers

Hockey

  • Blades Of Teal
  • Fear The Fin
  • Last Word On Hockey
  • Pro Hockey Rumors
  • Pro Hockey Talk
  • The Hockey Writers

Soccer

  • Center Line Soccer
  • Last Word on Soccer
  • MLS Multiplex

College

  • Busting Brackets
  • California Golden Blogs
  • College Sports Madness
  • College Football News
  • Rule Of Tree
  • Saturday Blitz
  • The Daily Californian
  • The Stanford Daily
  • Zags Blog

Copyright © 2022 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in