Charlie Frye will make a homecoming, of sorts, and start at quarterback for the Raiders Sunday at Cleveland.
Frye was knocked out of last week's game at Denver with 10:57 remaining when he was tackled hard by Broncos linebacker Andra Davis and Frye's head bounced hard off the grass. Frye was diagnosed with a concussion at the time but has since passed his "baseline" tests and deemed healthy to play. He practiced Wednesday but was unavailable to Bay Area media.
Frye was born in nearby Willard, Ohio, played collegiately at Akron and was Cleveland's third-round selection in the 2005 draft. With Bruce Gradkowski's success in leading the Raiders to an upset over the Steelers in his hometown of Pittsburgh a few weeks ago, coach Tom Cable hopes the Homecoming theme continues with the Frye Guy in Cleveland.
"I hope that pattern stays intact but I think it means more to that person," Cable said Wednesday. "It certainly has shown that already, and Charlie will be excited to go back to Cleveland, no question."
So what kind of improvement does Cable hope to see from Frye in his second start?
"I think he will be better from the standpoint of A, conditioning, and then B, the fact that now he's been in there and gone through it and got on a nice run, a nice stride, in terms of his flow of the game," Cable said. "Now he'll be able to relax and go play."
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The similarly concussed Zach Miller has also been cleared to play and the third-year tight end, who missed the first game of his career last week due to the concussion, also practiced Wednesday.
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Quarterback Jeff Otis has had two previous training camp tours with the Raiders and was back with the team Wednesday, purportedly as a practice squad signee. Still, the team had not announced any signing by Wednesday evening.
His appearance gives credence to the notion that with Frye's concussion, Gradkowski's sprained knees, JaMarcus Russell's benching and J.P. Losman's recent signing, the Raiders are simply looking for more depth heading into their final two games.
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