Cal Sports Report

Chase Garbers Will Be Raiders' Backup Quarterback This Weekend

Benching of Derek Carr allows the former Cal standout to move from the practice squad to No. 2 quarterback against the 49ers

Jake Curtis

Former Cal quarterback Chase Garbers is not the big news regarding the Las Vegas Raiders' quarterback situation, but his promotion to the active roster to be the No. 2 quarterback this weekend is a significant boost for his career.

The big news is that Dertek Carr will be benched for the final two games and Jarrett Stidham will be the Raiders' starting quarterback for the contests against the 49ers on Sunday the following week against the Kansas City Chiefs.

While making that announcement, first-year head coach Josh McDaniels indicated that Garbers will be Stidham's backup.  So if Stidham should get injured on Sunday or the game becomes a blowout, Garbers might get the first NFL action of his career against the Bay Area's playoff-bound team.

It means Garbers could be throwing passes to Davante Adams with a postseason berth still at stake.

The game will be in Las Vegas' Allegiant Stadium, so it won't be quite as close to his alma mater as it would be if the game were in Santa Clara, Calif., but it is still just a little more than 400 miles from Berkeley.

According to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, the Raiders are making this move to preserve Carr's health and to keep their options open for a possible trade.

The Raiders are 6-9 and have not been officially eliminated from playoff contention in the AFC, but they have lost two of their last three games and are two games behind Miami, which owns the seventh and final AFC playoff spot at the moment.

Stidham was acquired in a offseason trade with the New England Patriots, and has played in three games this season, going 8-for-17 for 72 yards.

Garbers was signed by the Raiders as a free agent after going undrafted in the 2022 NFL draft. He performed fairly well in the preseason, but was waived on the final cutdown day.  He was signed to the practice squad a day later and has been there ever since. He has never played in a regular-season NFL game.

If Garbers gets a chance and performs well that may give the Raiders more reason to trade Carr and keep Garbers in their future plans.

As of Wednesday morning, Garbers was still listed on the practice squad on the Raiders' website, but would be prpomoted to the active roster before Sunday's game. The Raiders currently have only three quarterbacks who would be available to play this weekend: Carr, Stidham and Garbers.

In the Raiders four preseason games, Garbers was 24-for-40 for 248 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions. He also sscmabled for 44 yards in one of those exhibition games.

Garbers was a four-year starter at Cal, and in his final season in 2021, he completed 64.3% of his passes with 16 touchdowns and eight interceptions.  He also ran for 456 yards that season and rushed for 1,174 yards in his Cal career.

"None of us is happy with where we're at, but we think it's an opportunity to evaluate a younger player who hasn't had much time to play," McDaniels said, according to ESPN.com. "Derek was great. He understands the scenario that we're in and the situation and is very supportive of the two young guys. He'll do anything he can to help them."

Carr has thrown 14 interceptions, the most of any quarterback in the NFL, and his passer rating of 86.3 is his lowest since his rookie season.

Later Wednesday it was announced that Carr will step away from the team for the final two games because he does not want to be a distraction.

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Cover photo of Chase Garbers by Stephen R. Sylvanie, USA TODAY Sports

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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