Jon Gruden Hopes Nathan Peterman Is A Raider For A Long, Long Time

Allow me to throw cold water on your hopes and dreams of seeing Nathan Peterman throw (and complete? to his own team, even?) passes in silver and black in the final two weeks of this season. He is merely on the Raiders’ practice squad, leading the scout team as regular backup A.J. McCarron is back home in Alabama for the birth of his son. “He’s on the practice squad right now,” Jon Gruden said Thursday. “I want to reiterate that to everybody.”

But maybe this is just the start of something beautiful. Gruden certainly hopes so. When asked if Peterman, released by the Bills last month after a historically inaccurate season, could be with the Raiders for a while, including next season, Grudes was optimistic.

“There’s a good chance of that,” Gruden said. “Hopefully we can take him into the offseason program and see if we can’t restart him and get him going.”

Oh hell yeah, hell yeah. If anyone can get Peterman on the right track, its the QB Whisperer himself, who took the Derek Carr who’d made three straight Pro Bowls and turned him into, uh, the guy who leads the NFL in checkdowns.

There are financial reasons to think McCarron won’t be back as Carr’s backup next season: As NBC Sports Bay Area notes, McCarron’s due a $3 million roster bonus on March 15, which could make him too pricy for the Raiders’ tastes. Enter Peterman? Lord, we hope so.

Gruden has been enamored with Nathan Peterman for a while. Back before the 2017 draft, when he was still an ESPN analyst, Gruden positively gushed over Peterman in a pre-draft evaluation:

Peterman is ready to walk in and be a contributor from day one. He just looks like a pro quarterback — coming out of the huddle, running an offense with different formations, shifting, motioning, different patterns that other colleges don’t run.

Peterman will recognize route combinations and associate formations. Most importantly, he will be able to get in a huddle from day one and look at 10 grown men and tell them where to go and what to do and handle a versatile snap count.

In a draft class that featured Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, and Mitch Trubisky, Gruden declared that “Peterman is the draft’s most pro-ready QB.”

Well Grudes, it’s time to put your offense where your mouth is. Peterman forever!