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Connor Cook will start in Wild Card game vs Texans

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Jack Del Rio has made it official: Connor Cook will start against the Texans in their Wild Card playoff game.

Oakland Raiders v Denver Broncos Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images

For those of you that may have lost faith in Matt McGloin during his limited action you might be happy about the news being reported today. It appears according to ESPN’s Ian Rapoport that McGloin will not be recovered enough to start Saturday’s playoff matchup against the Houston Texans, and that means that Connor Cook is expected to be the Raiders starter in the first round.

Though it was undeniable that the offense did run better with Connor Cook at the helm in Sunday’s season finale against the Broncos, it still is not ideal having a rookie making his first start in a playoff game. Talk about a baptism by fire for Cook.

There also is the problem of who will be backing Cook up if the unthinkable happened and Cook were to get injured during the game. According once again to Ian Rapoport the Raiders are flying Garrett Gilbert in to sign onto their practice squad, he was on the off-season roster but waived on May 24th. Gilbert would then be activated if Matt McGloin isn’t healthy enough to be the backup QB.

The Raiders are not alone in their QB troubles though, their opponent will be without the QB they were hoping would start as well. Brock Osweiler has officially been given the nod to start for the Texans because QB Tom Savage has not recovered from the concussion he sustained in this Sunday’s action.

UPDATE: Jack Del Rio spoke with Houston media Wednesday morning where he made it official that Connor Cook would be the team’s starter Saturday.