In a way, nothing’s changed for Matt McGloin – and yet everything has.
At this time last summer, McGloin was an undrafted free-agent quarterback from Penn State who was given no shot of making the roster and got few reps in training camp practices behind Matt Flynn, Terrelle Pryor and Tyler Wilson.
This training camp, McGloin is No. 3 on the depth chart behind veteran Matt Schaub and second-round draft pick Derek Carr. Again, the Raiders aren’t counting on him for much – if any – playing time in 2014.
But in between last summer and this one, McGloin ascended to the Raiders’ starting gig, taking over for Pryor and putting some life in a Raiders passing game that had gone flat. In seven games, McGloin completed 56 percent of his 211 throws for 1,547 yards, eight touchdowns and eight interceptons.
But McGloin isn’t hanging his head that he’s devolved from starter to afterthought.
In last week’s exhibition opener against Minnesota, McGloin played more than a quarter and led his team in passing, completing 11-of-18 for 90 yards., and scored Oakland’s only touchdown on a 10-yard run near the end of the game.
McGloin knows he’s not the Raiders’ Plan A or B in 2014. If it comes down to Plan C, something has gone terribly wrong with both Schaub and Carr.
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Yet, he’s doing what he always does. He plans to work hard and let other people worry about what happens.
“My mentality has always been it is what it is,” McGloin recently told reporters. “There’s two ways you can go: You can either be the guy who shows up every day and doesn’t want to be there and complains and pouts, or you can be the guy who says I’m going to make the most out of my reps, I’m going to do whatever I can and I’m going to continue to fight and scratch and claw and compete every day.”
In his latest projection of the team’s 53-man opening-day roster, Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com has McGloin making the team. With his experience from last season, he’s a valuable commodity to have as a No. 3 quarterback – more experienced than Carr.
But McGloin says he can’t take anything for granted, including a roster spot. In just his second year in the NFL, he’s seen how quickly things can change.
“All I can do is stay positive, control what I can control and make the most of my reps and my opportunities when I get in there,” McGloin recently told a newspaper in Pennsylvania near his hometown. “Everything else is out of my hands. I’m just at the point where you’ve got to protect your job.”
