Category: Raiders buzz

Today the Raiders made it official, sending right tackle Trent Brown to injured reserve. To fill the roster spot he vacated, the Raiders signed linebacker Ukeme Eligwe.

Eligwe was originally a 5th round pick out of Georgia Southern by the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2017 draft. He appeared in 14 games with one start as a rookie in KC but was among the team’s final roster cuts prior to the 2018 season. From there he joined the Giants, appearing in 10 games

Eligwe, a 6-foot-2, 239-pound linebacker, joins the Raiders after spending the season on the Tennessee Titans’ and most recently the New York Jets’ practice squad. Originally a fifth-round selection (183rd overall) by the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2017 NFL Draft, Eligwe spent his first two seasons with the club and has appeared in 24 games and made one start, totaling 10 tackles (seven solo), one sack and one pass defended.

The 6-2, 239-pound outside linebacker has spent this season split between the practice squads of the Titans and Jets.

Eligwe started his college football career at Florida State before transferring to Georgia Southern after his sophomore season. He compiled 121 tackles (10.5 for a loss) and 4.5 sacks in 21 appearances.

As a senior in 2016, he started in 11 games and earned All-Sun Belt Honorable Mention and Sun Belt All-Newcomer Team honors after leading the program in tackles (104), tackles for loss (11) and forced fumbles (three)

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Five Super Bowl rings. That’s how many Tom Flores (2) and Cliff Branch (3) have between them as Head Coach and wide receiver respectively. Technically, Flores has four, but the first was a player with the Chiefs and the other is as an assistant with the Raiders — neither of those are considered in his Hall of Fame credentials.

Branch also retired as the all-time leader in playoff receiving yards, so it wasn’t a coincidence he has three rings.

This year that could finally change. The Pro Football Hall of Fame is putting together a Centennial class for 2020 in which they will induct ten senior members. Among the 38 finalists are Flores and Branch.

The finalists include 8 head coaches, 20 players, and 10 contributors.

JUST ANNOUNCED: The Class of 2020 Centennial Slate Finalists. #PFHOF20

More on the Centennial Slate Finalist: https://t.co/yEF4HFiLKI pic.twitter.com/i3tFqOo6Cv

— Pro Football Hall of Fame (@ProFootballHOF) December 19, 2019

You’d think Flores’s and Branch’s credentials would have been plenty for each to have gotten the call to the Hall decades ago. And yet here we are, both this not in.

And Branch tragically died this past year, just as Ken Stabler did before he finally got recognition from the Senior Committee, so he won’t get to take the stage even if he is part of this class. Tom Flores is luckily still with us at the age of 82.

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We know it’s increasingly an analytics world and for that reason people tend to look at things like Pro Football Focus grades as gospel. Well, apparently that wasn’t exactly the case with this year’s Pro Bowl voting, at least as far as the Raiders two Pro Bowl players are concerned.

Tuesday the NFL announced which players would be named to the initial Pro Bowl roster. Two Raiders players made the team — center Rodney Hudson and offensive tackle Trent Brown.

The next day, Pro Football Focus put out their piece on who they think should have made the team. Hudson and Brown were not on it.

The AFC tackles were instead Ronny Stanley of the Ravens, Mitchell Schwartz of the Chiefs, and Anthony Castonzo of the Colts. The AFC centers were Ben Jones of the Titans and Brandon Linder of the Jaguars.

Brown has been widely seen as arguably the best right tackle in the league. He was signed to the largest offensive lineman contract in NFL history this offseason, which no doubt put him on a lot of voters’ radar. That and holding down the left tackle spot for the Patriots last season on their way to the Super Bowl. But, he is largely unproven. Hudson definitely is proven. But, you know, Grades!

PFF has pulled the okey-doke on Hudson before. They like to shout his praises on Twitter and talk about how he’s the best pass blocking center in the league (he is, and he also happens to be a fantastic run blocker and an invaluable asset to the offense). But when the chips are down — such as their list of the league’s top 101 players — Hudson is suddenly nowhere to be found.

But don’t fret, Raider Nation, PFF was sure to add Josh Jacobs to the team. They even made him the picture for the article just to make that the very clear.  See, you get one snub. You just lose the two guys that actually made the team.

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A few weeks ago rookie receiver Hunter Renfrow was sat down with a rib injury. Soon after, head coach Jon Gruden put week 16 against the Chargers as his target for Renfrow to return from that injury. That week is upon us.

Last week Renfrow returned to practice for the first time since the injury, but he wasn’t ready yet last week against the Jaguars. He appears to be ready now and could see a new role — punt returner.

“He did practice today in our indoor facility,” Gruden said of Renfrow who was listed on the injury report as a limited participant. . . “we’re trying to play him, perhaps let him catch a few punts, that’s another position that obviously we’ve had a lot of turnover at, so the plan is to play Hunter a little bit, get him back on the grass.”

Renfrow has fielded just one punt this season, and it was a fair catch. When he was lost to his injury Trevor Davis was still the primary punt returner. Davis has since been released, leaving the position up for grabs.

Over the first 12 weeks of the season, Renfrow had become one of the more reliable receivers on the team as the primary slot receiver, putting up 36 catches for 396 yards with 2 touchdowns. It would help the team a great deal if he could get back to doing some of that as well.

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We already know the Raiders will be without starting right tackle Trent Brown for the rest of the season. He was placed on injured reserve with a pectoral muscle injury. He was listed on the injury report as not practicing today prior to the official word of his IR designation.

Also listed as not practicing was left guard Richie Incognito who is nursing an ankle injury. Incognito suffered the ankle injury on the final play of last week against the Jaguars. He was slow to get up and limped off the field.

Today’s practice was an estimation because they were at their indoor facility. Often times it means the player will not practice when they do hit the field on Thursday, so that’s one to keep an eye on.

Brown was named to the Pro Bowl this week and Incognito was named an alternate, so obviously losing both would be significant.

Also not practicing were RB Josh Jacobs (shoulder), and LB Marquel Lee (toe). Gruden has already ruled Jacobs out for the game.

Missing for the Chargers was tackle Russell Okung (groin).

Richie Incognito also a DNP on #Raiders estimated practice report. pic.twitter.com/jI5c7XPvcP

— Levi Damien (@LeviDamien) December 18, 2019

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One week back and a heavy workload for Josh Jacobs and now it’s back on the shelf for Raider’s rookie phenom running back. He will be sat down for the Raiders game in Los Angeles against the Chargers.

“I don’t believe Josh [Jacobs] will play this week,” Head coach Jon Gruden said Wednesday. “We’ll hold out hope that he can play [in the season finale] against Denver.”

The Offensive Rookie of the Year favorite injured his shoulder injury in week seven against the Packers and has been taking pain injections each week to be able to play. He got 26 touches last week, which was his third most of the season.

Gruden also announced the team was shutting down right tackle Trent Brown who missed the past two weeks with a pectoral injury. Brown was named to the Pro Bowl this week, his first-ever.

Monday Gruden was asked about whether he might shut down Jacobs and Brown the rest of the season and was either holding out hope they could play or trying not to tip his hand on the team’s plans for them.

“When these guys can play, we’re going to play them,” Gruden said Monday. “We’re trying to win and we need them to win, but obviously we are going to do right by the player and do what the training staff says and right now it does appear Trent is going to play, although we are going to list him as questionable. And we’ll do the same right now with Jacobs.”

Two days later and both players are out. Brown for the season and Jacobs at least this week and potentially the final two weeks.

The Raiders are sitting at 6-8 right now. They aren’t mathematically out of the playoffs yet, but the odds are very long, and the decisions to sit these two could be an indication of that.

Newly signed running back Rod Smith will join DeAndre Washington and Jalen Richard in attempting to fill in for Jacobs.

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The Oakland Raiders will be without ther Pro Bowl right tackle for the final two weeks of the season as head coach Jon Gruden said on Wednesday that Trent Brown will be placed on the injured reserve list due to a pectoral injury.

Coach Gruden has announced RT Trent Brown will not play again this year and doesn’t believe Josh Jacobs will play this Sunday #Raiders

— Kyle Martin (@KylesFeed) December 18, 2019

Brown was one of the Raiders’ prized free-agent signings this offseason and was fantastic on the right side. On Tuesday, he was named to his first-ever Pro Bowl and now he will be forced to miss that game due to this injury.

Brown started 11 games for the Raiders at left tackle after playing all 16 for the Patriots at right tackle last season. He is expected to make a full recovery for the 2020 season.

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Oddsmakers seem to have learned their lesson from last week. The Raiders were 6.5-point favorites over the visiting Jaguars only to go out and get beaten by them. The Jaguars were coming off five-straight losses by an average margin of three touchdowns. So, the line seemed to make sense.

The Chargers haven’t been much better.  They’ve lost four of their last five games including getting trounced 39-10 by the Vikings last week. But they’re facing a Raiders team that has lost four straight, most of which were blowouts. Thus it should not surprise anyone they are favored by seven points across multiple betting sites over the Raiders in Los Angeles.

This is despite the fact that among those four Chargers losses over the past five weeks was one to the Raiders who eked out a 26-24 victory in Oakland on Thursday Night Football. But the oddsmakers see a different team in Silver & Black now. A shell of the team that went on a 3-game win streak at midseason and was once sitting at 6-4.

Now sitting at 6-8, they are full touchdown underdogs to the 5-9 Chargers.

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There are a few players on the Raiders’ roster that have legitimate grip when it comes to not making the Pro Bowl. Running back Josh Jacobs has totaled over 1,300 yards in 13 games for the Raiders, while tight end Darren Waller is one of two tight ends to surpass 1,000 receiving yards this season.

But the player with arguably the best case for why he should be in the Pro Bowl is left guard Richie Incognito. Despite not playing in 2018, Incognito has been one of the league’s best guards this season and he has helped transform the Raiders’ offense. With him in the lineup, the Raiders have one of the best rushing attacks in the entire NFL.

In a recent piece by Doug Farrar of the Touchdown Wire, Incognito was named the biggest Pro Bowl snub of the year. Farrar argued that Incognito should have been the selection over Steelers’ right guard David DeCastro:

This is a tough one, because DeCastro is perhaps my favorite guard to watch, but it’s a simple truth that Incognito has been a revelation for the Raiders, providing outstanding run blocking and allowing just nine total pressures on the season (tied with Baltimore’s Marshal Yanda for the lowest total of any starting guard in the league) while DeCastro has allowed two sacks and 18 hurries.

Not only has Incognito been impressive himself, but he’s also helped Kolton Miller develop into a fine tackle next to him. Oakland would love to bring back the 36-year old guard next season and there appears to be interest from both parties.

However, it’s unfortunate that Incognito wasn’t recognized for his fantastic season by the fans and the coaches. But don’t be surprised if he ends up playing in the game as an alternate.

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