It sounds like the Raiders should have quarterback Aidan O’Connell back for Sunday’s game against the Jaguars.
“He looks like he’s good to go,” head coach Antonio Pierce said in his Friday press conference. “Yesterday, he had another good day, so he should be good to go on Sunday.”
O’Connell suffered a bone bruise in his knee during Las Vegas’ Week 15 loss to Tampa Bay. Desmond Ridder started the Monday night loss to the Falcons.
In six games this year, O’Connell has completed 63.2 percent of his passes for 899 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions.
Pierce also noted that left guard Jordan Meredith (ankle) is not looking good to play, saying he’s doubtful. If that is the case, Jackson Powers-Johnson would move over to left guard, with Andre James starting at center.
Las Vegas’ full injury report with game statuses will be released later on Friday.
The Raiders announced several roster moves on Wednesday, including one that formally ends a star player’s season.
Defensive end Maxx Crosby has been placed on injured reserve. Crosby underwent ankle surgery, sharing in a social media post, “This bounce back will be iconic.”
Crosby recorded 7.5 sacks, 17 tackles for loss, and 20 quarterback hits in 12 games this season. He had not missed a game in his career before 2024.
Additionally, the Raiders placed running back Sincere McCormick on injured reserve, ending his season.
Running back Chris Collier has been signed to the 53-man roster off the club’s practice squad. As previously reported, the Raiders have signed defensive end Andre Carter to the 53-man roster off the Vikings’ practice squad.
Defensive end Ovie Oghoufo and running back Isaiah Spiller have been signed to the practice squad.
Edge rusher Andre Carter II will get a chance to show the Raiders what he can do over the final three weeks of the regular season.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that the Raiders will sign Carter off of the Vikings practice squad. Carter went to West Point and signed with the Vikings as an undrafted free agent last year.
Carter appeared in 12 games as a rookie and made two tackles while seeing most of his playing time on special teams.
Maxx Crosby’s season-ending ankle injury opens the door for Carter and others to make an impression in the final weeks of the year.
With Kirk Cousins heading to the bench in Atlanta, it’s safe to say his time with the team is over. Unless Michael Penix Jr. suffers a serious injury down the stretch — or unless the Falcons can’t trade Cousins in the offseason and decide to keep him as the backup — he’ll be elsewhere in 2025.
As we pointed out many times after the Falcons shocked the football-following world and used the eighth overall pick not on a player who would help Cousins win but on his eventual replacement, the front-loaded deal gives them an easy out after one year. If, that is, he’s willing to waive his no-trade clause.
The Falcons will pay Cousins $62.5 million for 2024. Cousins has a fully-guaranteed salary of $27.5 million for 2025, with another $10 million that becomes fully guaranteed in 2026 on the fifth day of the 2025 league year. As veteran quarterbacks go, $27.5 million is less than the top of the current market, which hit $60 million with the Dak Prescott deal.
It’s also possible the Falcons would pay some of the money to facilitate a trade.
First, someone has to want to trade for Cousins. Based on his performance this year, that might not be a given. Father Time quite possibly did what he inevitably does to all players after Cousins threw four touchdown passes on November 3 against the Cowboys. In five games since, he has one touchdown pass and nine interceptions. His passer rating has fallen under 80 in each of those games.
Second, Cousins has to be willing to waive his no-trade clause. Maybe he’ll dig in his heels, happily taking $27.5 million to be Penix’s backup in 2025 and otherwise daring the Falcons to cut him.
A trade before June 1 would trigger a 2025 cap charge of $37.5 million. That’s still lower than his $40 million cap number for next year, and it saves $27.5 million in cash.
Cutting him with a post-June 1 designation would trigger a $40 million charge, but the Falcons would get credit for whatever he earns elsewhere, even if it’s only the league minimum.
Not many teams will be looking for a starter in the offseason. The current candidates are the Jets, Browns (if they can get him cheap), Steelers (if they don’t re-sign Russell Wilson or Justin Fields), Titans, Raiders, Giants, Saints, and perhaps the Seahawks.
Then there’s the 49ers. With Brock Purdy not ascending the way many had hoped, coach Kyle Shanahan might finally reunite with the player that Kyle and his father, Mike, drafted in 2012 as the insurance policy to Robert Griffin III.
Finally, don’t rule out the Rams. Cousins is still a younger option than Matthew Stafford, and coach Sean McVay (who like Shanahan worked with Cousins in Washington) has high regard for Cousins.
On Monday night, ESPN offered up one last overlapping doubleheader for the 2024 season. On Tuesday, ESPN disclosed some of the metrics.
The company announced that the three hours of overlapping coverage of Bears-Vikings on ABC and Falcons-Raiders on ESPN averaged 17.8 million viewers.
No specific data was released as to the audience for Bears-Vikings or the audience for Falcons-Raiders.
Many (i.e., me) don’t like the Monday night doubleheaders. Just televise one game, and let us watch that game and only that game.
The good news is that ESPN and ABC apparently have ditched the live look-ins. There’s no reason to do it, since most people can use a split-screen function or have multiple screens.
There’s also no reason to have overlapping prime-time games. Why not just put one of the games on Tuesday night?
We all know it’s just a matter of time before that happens. Just go on and do it.
Raiders defensive end Janarius Robinson will not play again this season.
The NFL announced that Robinson has been suspended for three games. Robinson’s suspension is due to a violation of the league’s substance abuse policy.
No specific violation was announced, but Robinson was arrested for DUI in February.
Robinson was a Vikings fourth-round pick in 2021 and he spent his rookie year on injured reserve. He moved on to the Eagles in 2022, but landed back on injured reserve so he didn’t make his regular season debut until joining the Raiders last year.
Robinson had five tackles and a half-sack in 10 games this year and eight tackles and a sack in six games last year.
The Raiders may be turning back to Aidan O’Connell at quarterback in Week 16.
O’Connell was scratched from the lineup on Monday night due to a knee injury, but he had been listed as questionable heading into the game and head coach Antonio Pierce gave a positive update on O’Connell’s condition on Tuesday.
Pierce said at his press conference that O’Connell is “trending upwards to playing” against the Jaguars in Week 16. O’Connell took over as the starter in Week Six, but injured his thumb the next week and missed four games before returning to make two more starts.
Desmond Ridder started on Monday and went 23-of-39 for 208 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions in a 15-9 loss.
Antonio Pierce did enough last year as the interim head coach of the Raiders to earn a chance to be the non-interim head coach of the Raiders.
He’s gotten the chance. It hasn’t gone well.
The Raiders are 2-12, and they’re riding a 10-game losing streak. On Tuesday, the day after the team’s most recent loss, Pierce was asked if he thinks he’ll be back in 2025.
“I’m under contract,” Pierce said, via Tashan Reed of TheAthletic.com.
Being under contract doesn’t insulate a coach from being fired — unless the owner isn’t willing to pay him to not coach. Pierce can still be fired, contract or not contract. (Also, nothing stops the Raiders from trying to fire Pierce “for cause” and refusing to pay him; under the late Al Davis, the Raiders did just that with coach Lane Kiffin.)
Pierce also said he has had “positive” conversations with owner Mark Davis about the future.
But Pierce wouldn’t be the first coach to be fired despite getting the impression everything is fine. Some owners prefer to act like everything is normal until it isn’t. Some owners make a tentative decision and leave the door open to change their minds later.
Regardless, it’s hard to imagine the Raiders not making a change. Especially if the 10-game losing streak ends up at 13 before the season mercifully ends.
One of the NFL’s oldest records belongs to Mike Ditka, who as a Bears rookie tight end in 1961 gained 1,076 receiving yards. Even 63 years later, in a league with much more sophisticated passing offenses, rules favoring receivers and longer seasons, no rookie tight end has ever matched Ditka’s yardage total.
Raiders rookie tight end Brock Bowers is closing in, however.
Through 14 games this season, Bowers has 968 receiving yards, which puts him on pace for 1,175 receiving yards in a 17-game season. At his current pace, Bowers will break Ditka’s record in two weeks.
Bowers has already broken the rookie tight end receptions record, which was set by Detroit’s Sam LaPorta last year. LaPorta had 86 catches in 2023; Bowers has 90 catches so far this year.
What Ditka did in a 14-game season and a very different NFL is an extraordinary achievement, and Bowers putting up bigger numbers doesn’t necessarily reflect a better season. But any time a record has stood for 63 years, breaking it is a major accomplishment. And Bowers is getting close.
The Raiders’ special teams got two punts blocked, an extra point blocked, and fair caught a punt at the 3-yard line, leading to their offense taking a safety. Raiders coach Antonio Pierce was not pleased.
Asked about his team’s special teams miscues after the game, Pierce acknowledged they were ugly.
“A bad day in the office. A real bad day in the office,” Pierce said. “We need all three phases to play well.”
Despite the disappointing play and the disappointing 15-9 loss, Pierce said he believes his players are continuing to play hard.
“Blue-collar group, just hasn’t gone our way,” Pierce said.
The Raiders were losing all game but managed to come back to the point where they had a throw into the end zone with a chance for a touchdown and extra point to win the game at the end. Pierce said his heart was racing when that ball was in the air.
“I just needed it to come down in Silver and Black. It didn’t,” Pierce said. “These guys find a way to keep going dog tired.”
The Raiders did play hard at the end, but it wasn’t good enough. And it hasn’t been good enough all year.
