The Oakland Raiders have dealt with a number of injuries and drama this preseason, mostly regarding star wide receiver Antonio Brown, but it is hard to tell that is the case by the way they have looked on the field.
The Raiders are 2-0 in their first pair of preseason games, beating the Los Angeles Rams and Arizona Cardinals, and a lot of their starters and promising young players have all looked really good.
After sitting out the first game, starting quarterback Derek Carr played a series this past week against the Cardinals and went 2-for-2 with 40 yards and a touchdown.
Up next for Carr and the Raiders is a matchup with the Green Bay Packers in Winnipeg at IG Field on Thursday night. Unfortunately for the fans that will be in attendance though, most of the Raiders starters won’t be playing as head coach Jon Gruden has seen enough from Carr and others, via Scott Bair of NBC Sports:
“We’re looking into the surface that we’re playing on, and we’re not sure how much we’re going to play our starters,” Gruden said on Saturday. “We don’t have 22 starters in ink yet, either. There are going to be guys vying to become starters, but some of the frontline guys will be very limited in the next two weeks.”
One other starter who won’t be taking the field for the rest of the preseason is left tackle Richie Incognito. He is suspended for the first two games of the regular season, so Gruden wants to begin to prepare others who will be playing in Weeks 1 and 2:
“We’ve seen him enough,” Gruden said. “He’s played enough football. I don’t think we need to see him pull on power anymore. I think he’s good.”
Jonathan Cooper and Denzelle Good are expected to see a majority of the time at left tackle while Incognito is out. Good was just activated off the PUP list, so he could potentially see time in the final two preseason games if he is deemed healthy enough.
Gruden did not specifically say, but it will be interesting to see if rookie running back Josh Jacobs is shut down for the preseason as well. Gruden was pleased with what he saw from Jacobs against the Cardinals, so it would not be surprising to see him rest up for the start of the regular season along with most of the other offensive starters.