The Oakland Raiders made a mistake retaining three quarterbacks

The Oakland Raiders have made their final cuts to trim the roster down to 53 players, but the team made a mistake retaining all three quarterbacks.

The Oakland Raiders are just about a week away from kicking off their much-anticipated 2019 season. And now with a near-finalized 53-man roster, it’s full speed ahead to next Monday night against the Denver Broncos.

Of course, the 53-man roster is never truly finalized. And with the Raiders owning the fourth spot in the waiver wire, expect the team to be very active with their claims.

But even though it isn’t exactly finalized, the final cuts that the team made on Saturday were enough to get plenty of people riled up. And with good reason too.

The Raiders made the decision late on Friday night to retain all three quarterbacks on the roster in favor of using that extra roster spot for a player at a different position.

Head coach Jon Gruden hasn’t exactly been quiet about his affection for backup quarterback Nathan Peterman but with the former Pittsburgh standout unlikely to usurp Mike Glennon for the primary backup job, it was expected that he would be among those released on Saturday.

However, Peterman is still young enough to have practice squad eligibility meaning that Oakland could have tried to sneak him there as opposed to letting him take up a roster spot.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Despite the fact that Peterman will likely not be active in any game next season — barring injury — he will be taking up one of the 53 active roster spots. That roster spot could have been used for other players who received the boot despite more impressive showings this summer.

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One of said players could have been local UC Davis standout and “Hard Knocks” star Keelan Doss. Doss was one of the most impressive players this preseason and his incredible journey to this point has been well-documented.

Unfortunately, the Raiders wide receiver core is stacked with talent meaning that it was always going to be tough for him to secure a roster spot. Oakland ultimately decided to carry six receivers but it’s fair to wonder if they could have carried a seventh if Peterman wasn’t in the picture.

Doss’ lack of special teams contributions likely contributed to his release, but it’s safe to say that the Raiders could have gotten more use out of him on offense this season than they will Peterman.

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But if not Doss, perhaps that spot could have been given to undrafted defensive lineman Anthony Rush who also made his presence felt in the preseason.

It seems surprising that the Raiders left Rush exposed to waiver claims — even if the plan is to sign him to the practice squad — and that could have been avoided by retaining him on the active roster in place of Peterman.

Finally, the team could have also looked to keep another linebacker on the roster. At the moment, the Raiders have just four linebackers currently under contract — Vontaze Burfict, Tahir Whitehead, Nicholas Morrow, and Marquel Lee.

That’s incredibly thin, especially for a position of need.