Friday Raider Interim Head Coach Rich Bisaccia gave starting middle linebacker Denzel Perryman a status of Doubtful for Sunday’s game against the Chiefs. He said the team would be giving him another look on Saturday and possibly Sunday morning before deciding for sure whether he would be able to go.
Well, they have given Perryman that look, and the news wasn’t positive. Perryman has now officially been downgraded to OUT as the team heads to Kansas City.
The loss of Perryman is significant. He not only the team’s leading tackler, but his 85 solo tackles leads the NFL by a wide margin and his 133 combined tackles is currently third in the NFL.
He is the heart and soul and, most importantly, the brain of the Raiders defense. When he injured his ankle last Sunday against Washington, his absence was quite obvious.
Expected to replace Perryman at the MIKE is veteran KJ Wright who up to this point has come in and out of games when the team plays their base 4-3 defense.