Raiders coach Dennis Allen didn’t say who would be starting at quarterback for his team in Week 17 and his report from the team’s Wednesday practice offers little hint about what direction the team might be leaning on that front.
Steve Corkran of the Bay Area News Group reports that Allen said that Terrelle Pryor and Matt Leinart split reps during Wednesday’s session, although he gave no indication on whether one of them wound up taking a bigger share of the pie. Vic Tafur of the San Francisco Chronicle heard from Pryor that Leinart saw more of them, however, and Pryor referred to his share as “not much.”
Whoever winds up at quarterback isn’t going to have Carson Palmer on hand to help him navigate any difficulties with the offense. Allen said Wednesday that Palmer is not allowed to travel with the bruised lung that’s keeping him from playing in the game and will therefore not be on the sideline for the finale.
Allen said the team would be scaling back the playbook for either quarterback, which could mean we see a lot of running from the Raiders in Week 17 and, should that succeed, some questions about why the Raiders didn’t scale things back sooner.