PRO FOOTBALL : DAILY REPORT : RAIDERS : Signing Evans an Opportune Move

Early in Sunday’s game, it appeared the Raiders must have used a crystal ball to make a personnel move last week.

Since opening day, they have gone with two quarterbacks. But last week, though in need of a kick returner, they decided instead to re-sign veteran quarterback Vince Evans.

They did so because a third-string quarterback can be in uniform but does not count against the 45-player maximum a team can activate for a game.

So Evans functioned on the sidelines as a 46th man. In such cases, if the third-string quarterback goes in, the other two quarterbacks cannot play the rest of the game.

When Todd Marinovich was injured twice in the first half, Evans became a valuable addition as the only backup to Jay Schroeder.

Marinovich, as it turned out, went back in each time. He suffered a bruised forearm and a cut finger on the first occasion and had the wind knocked out of him the second time.