Wilson to Start Sunday, Skip Next Game

On the eve of the Raiders’ first quarterback derby, Tom Flores announced his starters.

Marc Wilson and Rusty Hilger will work the first and second halves, respectively, in Sunday’s exhibition opener at San Francisco.

In a mild surprise, Jim Plunkett and Hilger will then split next week’s exhibition against Dallas.

This is a Raider departure. Flores has never started anyone but his listed No. 1 quarterback in an exhibition game, except when Ken Stabler was holding out or when the No. 1 was injured.

There is still speculation among the Raiders that it’s only competitive up to a point, that something dramatic would have to happen for Hilger to overtake Plunkett, and perhaps as dramatic for Plunkett to overtake Wilson.

Nonetheless, Flores is giving each of his veteran quarterbacks a chance to start and to run the first-string offense. And he’s giving Hilger more playing time than Hilger was expecting.

“Right at this point, Marc holds the edge just off the way he’s looked in practice,” Flores said. “But we’re not going to go just by practice.

“I told them all today. Jim accepted it. He said, ‘I’m not going to play at all?’ I said, ‘You’re not going to play at all, but next week you’ll start.’

“We’re not going to just go by statistics. Statistics sometimes are misleading. If we’d gone by statistics, we’d have always had a quarterback other than our No. 1 starting the season. Jim has never been a fast starter.”

Do they need a fourth quarterback?

Doug Williams, formerly of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the USFL, has said he expects Tampa Bay to trade his NFL rights to the Redskins, who were known to be pursuing him, or the Raiders, who weren’t known to be.

Flores: “We heard just by some articles in the papers that Doug had said he’d be interested in playing with the Raiders. Right now, we haven’t pursued it. We haven’t even discussed it.

“I liked his arm when he was playing. He has a rifle arm. He’s big and strong and he can move around. He was certainly a very impressive guy at one time.”