Last Saturday, Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels got his starters some limited playing time against the Rams in the second preseason game.
Based on McDaniels’ Wednesday comments, that may have been enough exhibition reps for many of the club’s key players — including quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
“I don’t know that we are going to put some guys out there again,” McDaniels said in his Wednesday press conference. “Like I said, the four joint practices really were huge for us because there was a huge chunk of work that those guys got in those practices. It was really revealing to us a lot of things, good and bad, and we’ve been able to gauge a lot off of that and limit the, let’s call it risk to some degree. And we wanted to get out there last week and make sure we got out there and kind of played and looked each other in the eye in the huddle, and I thought that was all done the right way with those guys.
“We’ll sit down tonight and finalize that, but I think there’s going to be some guys that won’t suit up or won’t play. They’ll suit up but they won’t play. Again, we have plenty of things to work through on the roster and at a lot of positions. So, it’s going to be an important day for us but the ultimate decisions on who’s going to finally play and all that, we’re going to get to here shortly.”
The Raiders had a pair of joint practices with the 49ers before two sessions with the Rams in Southern California last week.
Las Vegas’ starting offense played one series with Garoppolo against Los Angeles, with the possession ending in a touchdown. Garoppolo was 4-of-4 for 39 yards.
