Oakland Raiders: Preseason Week 3 — Stock Up/Stock Down
By Nico Di Fede
Stock Up: Nathan Peterman, QB
Nathan Peterman came into the game with 13:15 left in the second quarter giving the now third-stringer three full quarters to move up the depth chart after a rather disappointing first three drives from Mike Glennon.
On his first drive, he drove the field for a touchdown on a five-yard dump-off pass to fullback Keith Smith ending an eight-play, 65-yard drive. He did throw one bad ball during this drive, which was an underthrow to Keelan Doss who saved a could-be interception by reaching over the corner.
If Peterman led Doss, he likely would have gotten a huge gain if not a touchdown.
On the following drive for Peterman, he underthrew another ball intended for Marcell Ateman who like Doss, saved the interception by reaching over the cornerback.
His next touchdown came in the fourth quarter finding a wide-open De’Mornay Pierson-El in the end zone after running an outside post.
Peterman threw an interception on the two-point conversion making the score 19-21 instead of tied, but on the last drive of the day, Peterman did what he needed to do to get into field-goal range allowing kicker Daniel Carlson to hit the game-winner.
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The former Pittsburgh standout finished the day 23-of-37 for 210 yards and two TDs which are of course some pretty impressive numbers. Despite that and the fact that he led the game-winning drive, I was personally not too impressed with Peterman.
Most of his throws were five yards or shorter and most of the ones that weren’t, went for big gains as a result of yards gained after the catch.
In the regular season, you are not going to score points if you do not push the ball downfield, which is why I believe Glennon is still the better option no matter how much better Peterman’s overall preseason may end up being.
If you cannot throw downfield versus guys who won’t make an NFL roster, you cannot do it against NFL starters.
My opinion doesn’t matter when it comes to his stock being up though, as Gruden likes Peterman and he did have a successful game. So in his eyes, the QB competition may be even right now.