ALAMEDA, Calif. — Charlie Frye is playing catch up with the Oakland Raiders, trying to get acclimated to the team’s offense with training camp six weeks away.

“I’ll just camp out up here,” the former Cleveland Browns quarterback said jokingly after Wednesday’s practice. “I’ll probably put one of those air mattresses in the QB room and just hang out.”
Frye didn’t do much on-field work and instead spent the majority of his morning watching practice as quarterbacks JaMarcus Russell and Bruce Gradkowski split reps during the workout.
With Jeff Garcia, Andrew Walter and Danny Southwick also on Oakland’s roster, there doesn’t appear to be much room, let alone playing time, for another quarterback. Yet the Raiders signed Frye anyway with the thought that too much is never enough.
“We really just want to have enough arms and to create competition,” coach Tom Cable said. “It’s a little bit of both, just have enough (quarterbacks) to throw and have guys around.”
Frye, who appeared in two games with one start while in Seattle last season, isn’t bothered by the crowd of players ahead of him on the depth chart.
Having been without a contract since the 2008 season ended, the 27-year-old is happy to have a shot to get back in the league.
“When everybody else was starting OTA’s I was just still at home, so it’s great to be out here,” Frye said. “You never want to complain again about a 7 a.m. meeting in the morning or your alarm going off at 6 a.m. I was only out a month but I missed it.”
Russell is Oakland’s unquestioned starter and is entering his third season in the NFL after entering the league as the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2007. Garcia, the veteran who last played for Tampa Bay, signed a one-year deal with the Raiders in the offseason to be Russell’s backup.
Beyond that, the situation is murky.
Gradkowski signed with Oakland early in the offseason but has been erratic during workouts. Walter is staying away from the organized team activities in hopes of being traded while Southwick is seen more as a long-term project.
Frye started 18 games in two seasons with Cleveland in 2005-06 but fell out of favor with the Browns and was eventually traded to Seattle for a sixth-round draft pick. Now in Oakland, he’s hoping to revive a career that showed promise before sputtering the past three years.
“I think competition brings out the best in me,” said Frye, who spent last season behind Seattle starter Matt Hasselback and Seneca Wallace. “Before you start you have to take that first step and you have to put yourself in a position to be a starter. You saw what happened to Hasselback last year. Seneca was in a position where he could put himself out there for eight or nine games and play.
“All I’m trying to do right now is put myself in a position to help out a team or get on the field and play if something was to happen. That’s all you can do. You want to be prepared.”
Notes: Garcia was among seven players who did not attend Wednesday’s practice due to personal reasons. Also absent were Walter, running back Justin Fargas, defensive tackle Terdell Sands, defensive ends Derrick Burgess and Jay Richardson and wide receiver Will Franklin. ... The Raiders will have one more week of OTAs before breaking until training camp.