Matt Schaub sidelined with sore elbow, Derek Carr takes first team reps for Raiders

The Raiders returned to practice today for the first time since they lost to the Packers in Green Bay in their third preseason game. Matt Schaub was sitting out of practice and Dennis Allen revealed that Schaub has elbow soreness.

"Schaub has got a little soreness in his elbow," said Allen. "He came in yesterday afternoon with a little soreness in his elbow, so we gave him the day off. We'll see where he's at tomorrow and kind of take that day by day."

"He just came in after the game, yesterday afternoon I guess it was, and said his elbow was bothering him a little bit, so we started the evaluation process on that."

It's weird. It seems like we've been here before. I'm having this weird deja vu thing where I could swear the Raiders just last year traded for a quarterback named Matt and named him the starter only to have him suffer from elbow soreness and have his backup take over first team reps. Probably because it did.

The Raiders traded for Matt Flynn last off-season and made him the starter. He remained the starter through training camp and into the preseason. But then he was sidelined by elbow tendinitis, prompting the team to go with number two quarterback, Terrelle Pryor.

Dennis Allen laughed off the idea that this situation is similar to what occurred last preseason, saying "No, it's really not. We'll evaluate [Schaub] over the next couple of days and see how he's doing."

While I too don't expect this situation will be the same, it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility.

Carr was expected to start the finale and play extensive minutes so giving the 33-year-old Schaub some rest this week is not a big deal. It's how he responds in the week of practices heading into the season that will be the focus. Then of course there's always Matt McGloin who worked his way to taking over the starting job midseason.

It will also be interesting to watch how Derek Carr performs in the finale against the Seahawks in Oakland. How he handles things could play a factor in what Dennis Allen decides for the starting quarterback duties heading into the season.

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