The Oakland Raiders are heading into camp with a number of questions on both sides of the ball and a Matt McGloin trade with the Houston Texans could potentially be an option for Bill O'Brien over names like Kirk Cousins and Ryan Mallet, as O'Brien was McGloin's head coach at Penn State and that would leave Derek Carr and Matt Schaub to battle things out for Dennis Allen in 2014.
McGloin comes into this season after splitting time last year with Terrelle Pryor for the Raiders and he was one of the players that beat out Matt Flynn and he came in as an undrafted free agent last year. According to ESPN.com blogger Paul Gutierrez, the Texans looked into the option before the NFL draft about trading for McGloin, but no talks ever started and a deal did into get close to being completed. It likely is too late now for a trade to go down, but O'Brien may feel more comfortable going with McGloin over the unproven Tom Savage and the marginal Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Last season McGloin did not take over the starting job like gangbusters, but he played very well at times and even beat the Texans on the road as they were in the middle of their 14 game losing streak. McGloin ended up starting in six games and playing seven and he had over 1,500 yards passing and eight touchdowns with eight picks and while it wasn't perfect, he showed he could handle playing in the league. The Raiders liked McGloin enough to keep him over Tyler Wilson and Matt Flynn last season, so he likely isn't going anywhere, but it would be cool for McGloin and O'Brien to reunite in the NFL after the success they had at Penn State.
The Raiders traded for Matt Schaub and feel comfortable having him in the starting position ahead of Derek Carr, who they drafted in the second round and are expecting to be the backup. Dennis Allen is heading into camp with Schaub as the starter and he has been confident about saying that, but a similar situation came up last season with Matt Flynn and he ended up starting zero games for the Raiders. While Schaub is much better and more experienced than Flynn, a good summer camp performance from Carr could vault him into the starting job. Flynn dealt with that once before as well, with Russell Wilson winning the Seahawks job out of camp and we all know how that one turned out.
The Raiders have gone 4-12 in each of the last two seasons and that is one reason why Allen likely will use Schaub to at least start the year, as the head coach has a ton riding on this team. General manager Reggie McKenzie has some skin in the game as well, but the first man out likely will be Allen if the team fails again and that puts some pressure on him to make sure the team performs well and he sees that happening with the more experienced Schaub under center. Carr had a great year with Fresno State, passing for 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns, but college football is not the NFL.