The Oakland Raiders will play their second preseason game of the year on Thursday against the Arizona Cardinals. It appears starting quarterback Derek Carr will be getting his first action of 2019 in that contest.

The Raiders have been an extremely entertaining team for the last two years. Ever since Jon Gruden became their head coach, it has been a nonstop headline factory.

One of those stories last season surrounded Carr. It was heavily rumored that he didn't exactly see eye-to-eye with Gruden. That, coupled with his career-low touchdown passes, brought in even more rumors.

Was Carr going to even survive the year as the starter? If he did, would he be there in 2019? Was there any chance Carr would be with the team beyond that?

Carr did indeed make it past 2018 and is now the obvious QB1 for 2019. If he's with the team beyond that will be up to how he plays.

However, the good news is that he definitely seems to be more on-the-same-page with Gruden than he was last year. The two clearly aren't having the same issues they were in 2018 – or maybe those issues were just overblown in the first place.

Either way, Carr is the quarterback now. He's now had a full year under Gruden's system and has some improved weapons around him. Thursday will be the first time we get to see him in 2019 and it could be very telling.

The issue will be that we likely won't get to see much of Carr. Gruden said he'll “see some snaps.” That makes it sound like Carr's getting one series, maybe two. Not exactly enough time evaluate much.

That is more than enough time to make some rash assumptions based on just a few plays though – so at least there's that.