With Christian Hackenberg added to the mix, who will be odd man out in Raiders QB room?

To my surprise, and probably to many of Raider Nation as well, the Oakland Raiders acquired former second round selection Christian Hackenberg from the New York Jets for a 2019 conditional 7th round pick on Tuesday.

At the moment, Oakland has four fairly high draft picks at quarterback including Derek Carr (2nd round), EJ Manuel (1st), Connor Cook (4th) and Hackenberg (2nd).

Normally, teams only keep three quarterbacks on their 53-man roster, sometimes just two. With some basic math, it is apparent that one of those (maybe two) quarterbacks will not be on the roster when the season begins in September.

We don’t need to discuss Carr. He is a $125 million man and will be on the roster for the foreseeable future.

Manuel was the backup last season and played decent football in his limited time. Against Denver in week four, Manuel went 11 for 17 for 106 yards and was a dropped pass away from leading a game-winning drive. Starting for Carr the following week in Baltimore, he went 13 for 26 for 159 yards and a touchdown. Last season’s performances, while not great in the stat book, should give him a strong case for securing a roster spot for 2018.

The competition could come down to the inexperienced Hackenberg and Cook. Hackenberg has never thrown an NFL pass and Cook’s only start was a playoff game against the Houston Texans in which he was intercepted three times.

As such, there isn’t much NFL film to make a judgement, so the decision will likely come down to the young quarterbacks’ abilities to pick up Jon Gruden’s demanding offense in practice.

A few things to keep in mind are that Gruden didn’t draft Cook, did trade for Hackenberg and has referenced that he is a first-round talent.

Raider Nation, who will be the odd man out of the Raiders quarterback room come Week 1?