Matt McGloin responds to reports of his making an impression

Earlier this week, reports came out that Raiders rookie quarterback, Matt McGloin, was making quite an impression on his new coaches with the Raiders. The report came from Chris Mortenson who goes as far as to say McGloin is pushing Terrelle Pryor and Tyler Wilson. The first problem here is Mortenson has never set foot in Raiders OTA's or minicamp since McGloin joined the team.

For those of us who are at practices, this report was a bit surprising. Not because McGloin wasn't playing well, he has done everything asked of him. The surprise comes in how Mortenson could surmise McGloin is making a push considering the limited reps he has had in team sessions.

When I say limited, I mean very limited. He typically sees one play at the tail end of each team session. At any given practice there are typically three team sessions. That is not a lot of reps to make a big splash.

I mentioned this report to McGloin following practice Wednesday.

"Yeah, somebody told me about it," said McGloin. "All news is good news but I still have a long way to go. I still have a lot to do with the system, the speed of the game and just adapting to the NFL level. So, it's definitely good to see but at the end of the day it doesn't really mean much. I'm still getting one rep at a clip.

"I'll get more reps when I can, but I understand the position that I'm in - came into camp as an undrafted guy - so I'm just trying to make the most out of every opportunity and every rep that I get."

"Obviously as a competitor it's tough to watch the other guys take reps and you don't get too many but like I said I understand the position that I'm in. I was an undrafted guy and I'm not gonna come in and take a ton of reps so you gotta make the most of your reps and I've been doing the best job I can to get the most mental reps as I can even when I'm not in there."

McGloin, like most players coming out of college, have to face the shock of going from being a star to suddenly being buried in the depth chart. He is back to square one but this is nothing new for McGloin who didn't get highly recruited out of high school, and went from being a walk on at Penn State to earning his way to starter as a senior. And of course, there was the whole Jerry Sandusky scandal in the midst of it all.

"I kinda have been through it all," said McGloin. "At Penn State I was kind of in a tough situation there early on where I was just really overlooked because I wasn't a four or five star recruit even though I was better than the kids they brought in. They'd start one kid and then bring me in the play the rest of game. So, it was tough on you mentally but I just continued working and outwork and compete against those guys and once coach O'Brien came in and named me the starter immediately after spring practice, the other guys transferred and we ended up having a phenomenal year. It does take a toll on you mentally with all the competition and things like that but once I was able to start and get a full summer under my belt and learning the offense and becoming a leader, I think that had a lot to do our success offensively."

"It's just the hand I was dealt. I've always been good with it, I'm a mentally tough person and I keep pushing and keep fighting and I've always gotten my opportunity and I'm happy with the way I finished at Penn State and I'm really happy Oakland gave me an opportunity here so it wouldn't be fair if I didn't give them everything I had every day."

This mentality should sound pretty familiar to Raiders fans who have been following the players the Raiders have signed and drafted of late. Reggie McKenzie loves guys like this who have fought to prove themselves every step of the way and continue to need to prove themselves.

As far as impressing the coaches, he impressed them the day he walked in the building. He wasn't at the team's rookie minicamp for tryouts. He was busy trying out for the Panthers. They didn't sign him and so the Raiders brought him into their first OTA's due to the absence of the team's priority undrafted free agent, Kyle Padron, not eligible to practice with college classes still to attend. McGloin went from space filler to a contract in one day.

McGloin will be in camp with the Raiders and hopes to get plenty more opportunities to prove he belongs on an NFL roster. He has a lot to prove, but is already well versed in proving it.

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