What is Oakland’s plan for DeShone Kizer?

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When you have two starting quarterbacks, you have none. When you have three backup quarterbacks, you don’t have one you really believe in.

It remains to be seen whether the Raiders will keep Mike Glennon, Nathan Peterman, and (as of Sunday) DeShone Kizer behind Derek Carr. For now, though, coach Jon Gruden has a full house in the quarterback room.

“It’s all about keeping everyone on their toes,” PFT Live co-host Chris Simms, who played for Gruden in Tampa, said via text. “He wants competition in that room. He doesn’t want anyone comfortable. He doesn’t want an injury to a quarterback and the team falls apart.”

So how long will Gruden stick with four of 53 roster spots being devoted to quarterbacks?

“He is crazy enough to keep four on the roster for a little while,” Simms said. “He doesn’t trust Peterman completely but likes his skill set. He trusts Glennon but thinks he is not athletic enough to do things when it breaks down. And he’s going to hope Kizer is a combination of both.”

Gruden’s decision to give Kizer a look-see may have been influenced by G.M. Mike Mayock’s assessment of the 2017 second-round draft pick. Until the middle of April, when the media tends to annually catch up with the scouts and personnel executives, Mayock had Kizer rated above all other quarterbacks in a class that included Patrick Mahomes, Mitchell Trubisky, and Deshaun Watson. Even after Mayock dropped from Kizer to No. 4, Mayock remained a believer.

“From my perspective, Kizer still has the biggest ceiling of any quarterback in this draft,” Mayock said at the time. “He’s the prototypical NFL franchise quarterback, but he’s not ready to play. I think he’s a year or two away from stepping on an NFL field.”

Kizer has his work to do in order to prove Mayock right; Mahomes is the reigning MVP of the league, Watson has been great, and Trubisky is moving in that direction.

That same year, Gruden had a high opinion of Peterman. So Gruden has his guy and Mayock has his guy and maybe Mike Glennon is the one who ends up with the short straw, before his $1 million base salary becomes as a practical matter guaranteed as of Week One.