The Las Vegas Raiders made a series of peculiar moves on Wednesday morning. With two games against the New York Giants and Kansas City Chiefs separating them from the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, the Raiders placed Brock Bowers and Jeremy Chinn on the IR, ending their 2025 seasons.
In a way, these moves made sense, as Bowers has been battling a knee injury all season, and Chinn has been nursing a back ailment for the last few weeks. But neither was bad enough to keep them out of Week 16's game, where they played 53 offensive and all 65 defensive snaps, respectively.
Many are accusing the Raiders of deliberately tanking, even though Pete Carroll and Maxx Crosby have insisted that the team's sole focus is finishing out the season with two wins. Even if Las Vegas is tanking, by this metric, they certainly aren't the only ones.
Chiefs place several key players on IR hours after Raiders' decisions
Just hours after the Raiders' announcement on Wednesday, the Chiefs had an announcement of their own. They placed star wide receiver Rashee Rice, All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie, wideout Tyquan Thornton and starting cornerback Jaylen Watson all on Injured Reserve as well.
Now, three of these players sat out of Sunday's game, a loss to the Tennessee Titans, with Watson being the exception. He played 59 of 73 defensive snaps and there is no record of him leaving the contest with any sort of injury.
NFL players are constantly banged up, however, and Kansas City seems to be admitting that its sights are set on the 2026 season as well. The Chiefs even upped the ante, placing four players on IR after the Raiders placed Bowers and Chinn, as well as Jordan Meredith on Monday.
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This is an especially big development for Las Vegas, as they are firmly in the hunt for the top pick, and they take on Kansas City in Week 18. In a way, the Raiders' future hinges on how well a handful of the Chiefs' backups fare against a handful of Las Vegas' in an utterly meaningless contest.
At the beginning of the year, Raider Nation was hoping that they could sneak a win in the season finale against a Kansas City team that may have had the AFC West sewn up. Now, they're facing a third-string quarterback, not even Gardner Minshew, and a slew of depth pieces across the board.
With the 2-13 Giants on the docket this weekend, and a handful of their players already sidelined at practice this week due to injury, it will be interesting to see if New York makes any similar moves. The race for a favorable position in next April's draft seems to be on, and teams are taking no prisoners.