How many Raiders will miss Sunday's game?
The Raiders' injury report has been staggering this week.
16 players are currently listed as missing practice in some capacity, and this does not include players on season-ending IR like Malcolm Koonce or Marcus Epps.
The report includes a handful of stars like Maxx Crosby and Davante Adams, but also a plethora of other starters and key depth pieces:
That’s quite the list … pic.twitter.com/FVNe2Mc4YH
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) October 3, 2024
If Maxx Crosby cannot play again on Sunday, it will hurt the Raiders' chances tremendously. He has been an absolute game-wrecking in each and every contest he's played against the Broncos in his career.
In 10 career matchups, Crosby is 9-1 against the Broncos with 13.5 sacks, 14 TFL, 22 QB hits, 43 tackles, two pass deflections, and two forced fumbles. He has had 1.0 sack or more in each game that he's faced Denver, excluding his NFL debut all the way back in 2019, and four multi-sack games.
Davante Adams has also had tremendous success against the Broncos in his two seasons with the Raiders, but will be unavailable Sunday, official due to a hamstring injury.
A slew of other starters did not participate in Thursday's practice: Divine Deablo, Thayer Munford, Michael Mayer, Dylan Parham, and Zamir White.
Deablo's replacement, Luke Masterson, was also a non-participant on Thursday, so the team may need to lean on younger guys like Tommy Eichenberg, Amari Burney or Amari Gainer to get the job done on Sunday.
Munford, if he misses, will be replaced by DJ Glaze once again, and Harrison Bryant will fill in for Mayer.
Both of these players performed well while filling in on Sunday against the Browns, so hopefully they can replicate that again in Week 5 against Denver.
Dylan Parham being hurt is an issue, as he has been the Raiders' best lineman so far this season. The team got rookie Jackson Powers-Johnson back last week, and the run game finally looked good, but losing Parham while backup Cody Whitehair is also limited at practice is a bit concerning.
Two rookie defensive backs remain on the report, with Decamerion Richardson in line to miss his fifth straight game to begin his NFL career. Trey Taylor had his practice window opened as he returned from IR this week, but we are likely still a week away from seeing him in any action.
Kolton Miller did return to practifce on Thursday.
Hopefully, these players get healthy in a hurry because winning with a skeleton crew is not something you can always count on as an NFL team.