Matt Schaub didn’t quite envision this when he greenlighted the trade that sent him from the Texans to the Raiders this offseason. Troubled by elbow tendinitis, the veteran QB had a rough preseason and six days before the season opener against the Jets, the team crowned rookie Derek Carr as the team’s starter. Still, despite the adversity Schaub has gone through, his age, and presumed financial security, he is not thinking about calling it quits.
“Definitely not,” Schaub told Dale Robertson of the Houston Chronicle when he was asked if he might be confronting the beginning of the end of his career. “I’ve got plenty of football left in me, plenty left to give.”
Schaub admitted that he’s frustrated and disappointed, but he says that he’ll focus only on what he can control. In the interim, coach Dennis Allen has stated plainly that Carr is the team’s quarterback and, at least for the moment, that is not up for discussion.
Schaub was excited to join up with the Raiders earlier this year and he took significant pay cuts in 2014 and 2015 to make the trade work for Oakland. Although he struggled with performance and health in 2013, Schaub is only two years removed from a Pro Bowl season in which he threw for more than 4,000 yards, completing 64.3% of his passes and recording a 22-12 TD-INT ratio. Even during his down year, he completed 61.2% of his passes and averaged 231 passing yards per game.