New Orleans Saints at Las Vegas Raiders: 3 Things to watch in Week 2
New Orleans Saints at Las Vegas Raiders: 3 Things to watch in Week 2
Raiders Injuries on Offense & Defense
Unfortunately, when I say all teams get bit by the injury bug, that includes the Raiders. We saw them suffer some unfortunate injuries on both sides of the ball in their matchup against the Panthers. Though most of them were not as severe as originally thought, it puts a few statuses in question heading into Week 2.
On the offensive side, most notably we saw star right tackle Trent Brown go down with the same calf injury that caused him to miss most of training camp. His rest the past few weeks and leading up to this game proved not enough, as he suffered the injury on the third play of the game.
None the less, we may very well see Denzelle Good start at right tackle, as he filled in for Brown, and backup swing tackle Sam Young who was also injured early. Good did very well taking over the starting duties, and Gruden seemed to be impressed with his production at a position he’s relatively raw at playing.
On the defensive side of the ball we saw newly acquired linebacker Nick Kwiatkowski come out of the game with a pectoral injury. In his replacement, Nick Morrow stepped up and took the reins. He did well in the coverage, though seemed to lack as a sure tackler in the run game.
The Raiders brought in Raekwon McMillan from the Dolphins to help bolster the position as a run defender, but you are essentially having to use two guys to fill the void that Kwiatkowski, the defenses signal caller, provided by himself.
Luckily his injury was said to not be as severe as initially thought. As he gets it checked out this week as well, it’s important to note that he has played through a more severe pec injury before, so we could very well see him resting or limited all week and suiting up on Monday night.
Next. 3 Things we learned about Derek Carr in the Raiders win in Week 1. dark
For a defense with so many new moving parts, its imperative that his cohesiveness gels with his teammates as soon as possible. But if the team sees a possibility of worsening his injury if he does play, we could very well be relying once again on Nicholas Morrow to fill the void with McMillan working his way in on 1st and 2nd downs.