Friday’s final injury report didn’t have Carl Nassib on it. He was listed during the week as having a knee issue, but was a full participant. And by Friday he was removed from the report.
Prior to the game on Sunday, Nassib was among the players who was a surprising inactive, while practice squad call-up Vic Beasley was active.
Gruden was asked on Monday if Nassib was a healthy scratch and he said plainly “Yes.”
It’s a strange development for a player who had started the previous two weeks in place of Clelin Ferrell. While Ferrell returned vs the Jets, for Nassib to go from starter to inactive without injury coming into play was a surprise.
“We put a hat on eight defensive linemen and we like Carl [Nassib], we like everybody, we try to play the guys that have the best weeks of practice,” said Gruden on Monday. “We feel like we want to create competition. Vic Beasley’s here to create that. He didn’t come here to sit on the bench. Takk McKinley, when he comes back, he’s not going to be just sitting out there waiting until next year. We’re going to put the ball down Wednesday in the morning for practice and we’re going to play the guys that performed the best on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.”
A reminder that Nassib was signed this offseason to a three-year, $25 million deal with $16.75 million guaranteed. He is currently the second highest-paid defender on the Raiders team with a 2020 cap hit of $7.75 million. To make him a healthy scratch is no small thing.
It’s hard to argue that a message does need to be sent. To someone, anyway. Regardless of how much money these guys are being paid, the Raiders have got to get the pass rush going. As a team, they have 12 sacks and Maxx Crosby has half of them.
Ferrell has two sacks in the game, his first and second of the season, which moved him ahead of Nassib (1.5) on the season in both sacks and QB hits (10).
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