The Oakland Raiders will start Derek Carr at quarterback over Matt Schaub in Week 1 of the NFL season according to reports from Fox Sports and this comes as Schaub is dealing with an elbow injury and also after Carr performed well in the preseason.
There were rumors earlier in the summer that Carr had a good shot to beat Schaub for the starting job but until now Dennis Allen made no choice either way about who would start. According to Fox Sports reporter Jay Glazer, the Raiders will start Carr for week one against the New York Jets and that will be on the road at Metlife Stadium for the first week of the season as the teams open up on the east coast.
Carr comes into the pros with a great track record from college of being a productive quarterback at Fresno State where he passed for over 4000 yards last season. Schaub had a very tough season with the Houston Texans and he ended up losing his starting job at one point and also was injured in 2013 which led to his trade to Oakland. The Raiders have high expectations this season after winning just four games last year and now Allen may feel the pressure which is why he elected not to start Schaub while he is not at 100 percent.
The Raiders made a number of signings on offense in free agency this off-season including Darren McFadden, Maurice Jones-Drew and James Jones. If Carr plays well in the first game against New York and then continues to play well while leading offense there's a good chance that he will keep the starting job until he falters. Carr and Schaub battled in camp and it looked like Schaub would be the guy, but he dealt with an elbow issue and he was not all that impressive while he was starting and now the way last season went with Matt Flynn and Pryor is playing out in the same way again, with the backup starting after everyone expected the traded player to.
Last season the Raiders used Matt McGloin and Terrelle Pryor while splitting time and neither player really took hold of the starting quarterback position. Pryor is now with Seattle and McGloin is the third string quarterback behind Carr and Schaub.
The Raiders have won just four games in each of the last two seasons and now Dennis Allen is looking for some big improvements in 2014. Oakland signed a number of players on both sides of the ball in free agency and if there isn't some improvement on either side there's a good chance someone will get fired by Mark Davis.
The Raiders play in one of the toughest divisions in football and that means the team likely has it's eyes set on at least getting to .500 and competing for a wild-card spot. The Denver Broncos will once again be the favorites for the division title and the Kansas City Chiefs are looking like they will be good again after signing Alex Smith to an extension. San Diego Chargers are also expected to be a strong team after the way Philip Rivers played last season and that makes it even tougher for Oakland to compete in the West division.