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Following the Raiders’ Thursday night win over the Chargers, Jon Gruden was initially most concerned about the apparent hamstring injury suffered by nickel cornerback Lamarcus Joyner. He pulled up without contact on the Chargers’ final possession. Those non-contact injuries are often the worst ones.

As it turned out, it was fellow defensive back Karl Joseph who had the more severe injury, and he was placed on the injured reserve list two days later.

While Joyner’s hamstring injury is not season-ending, he may still miss some time. The Raiders signed free agent DJ Swearinger to try and fill the void left by the loss of Joseph, but at cornerback, they recently traded away one of their starters, leaving them with some serious depth issues now that Joyner is a question mark.

So, who replaces Joyner at the nickel cornerback spot? Well, that depends…

“Nevin Lawson is a guy that can play inside,” said Gruden. “Worley can play inside. Isaiah Johnson can play outside, so we have some options. But we’ll see where Lamarcus is here in the next couple days.”

Lawson is the first option. Worley had been tried out at safety and nickel earlier in the season as the Raiders explored their best five options for the secondary. Moving to safety may have been an option had Joyner not been injured, but now Worley is desperately needed at the cornerback spot.

Whether Worley could be tried at the nickel spot is dependent upon where rookie Isaiah Johnson is in his development. Johnson was activated from the injured reserve list just last week and plays exclusively outside.

“We’ll see where Isaiah is with a full week of practice. Remember last week was his first full week active, and we didn’t even have a full-speed practice before the Charger game. So this will be really the first time we get a chance to see him on the practice field for a full week.”

Experience is undoubtedly a concern with Johnson, while Lawson is a veteran cornerback with 54 NFL starts in 66 appearances under his belt. So, it would seem there is a very good chance the cornerback trio will be Worley and Trayvon Mullen on the outside, Lawson in the slot, and Johnson and Keisean Nixon off the bench.

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Safety was a bit of a question mark for the Raiders late last season. So, when Washington waived DJ Swearinger on Christmas Eve, Jon Gruden hopes his brother had sent him a Christmas gift. Jon put in a claim for the former second-round pick. But it was the Arizona Cardinals who swooped in like a game of White Elephant and claimed Swearinger instead.

Swearinger started at safety for the first four games for the Cardinals. That’s when the Cardinals thought 5th round supplemental draft pick Jalen Thompson was ready to take over, so they cut Swearinger loose.

For five weeks, Swearinger was unemployed, waiting for an NFL team in need of his services. Last Thursday, his opportunity knocked when, on the last play of the game, Karl Joseph suffered an ankle injury and was lost for the season.

The former top pick safety is the second starting safety the Raiders have lost this season after first-round rookie Johnathan Abram was lost in the opener.

Joseph had played nearly every single snap at safety and made the game-sealing play of the game the past two weeks. So, losing him is significant. After him and fellow starter Erik Harris, there’s just Curtis Riley and Dallin Leavitt, who play almost exclusively on special teams.

Swearinger has started 70 games in 90 appearances in seven NFL seasons, but he has switched teams six times in that span. There’s a reason why a safety as once highly touted as Swearinger has been unable to stick with a team for long. Some have suggested it is his character that is most concerning. The Raiders don’t have the luxury of worrying about personality issues. They need what he can bring on the field. And they need it now.

“He’s got to put it all together,” said Gruden. “That’s what he needs to do. He’s got to start that process today. We need the very best of Swearinger.”

Despite some solid stints over 31 starts in Washington, Swearinger was waived just before the season finale. In his four starts in Arizona this season, the Cardinals weren’t getting the “very best” of Swearinger, and that was ultimately why he was let go this time.

Last season, Swearinger would have been a claim for the future. Now, in the thick of the playoff chase, he will be looked to bolster their lineup for the stretch run.

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Each team is allowed to have two players placed on injured reserve during the season to return. Last week the Raiders got rookie cornerback Isaiah Johnson back on schedule. And as of Monday, it was linebacker Marquel Lee whose return clock started as well.

That clock starts a three-week window of when the team must decide either to activate him or end his season entirely.

“NFL rules don’t allow him to play until the Kansas City game, so he’ll get a chance to be on the practice field and get re-acclimated to what he needs to do to get right,” Jon Gruden said of Lee Monday.

Lee had suffered an ankle injury in week three against the Vikings. They will face the Chiefs week 14 on December 1, which means, if Lee is activated at that time, he could play the final four games as well as any playoff games, should the Raiders reach the playoffs.

With the suspension of Vontaze Burfict in week 4, the Raiders could use Lee’s services. They also recently added free-agent linebacker, Will Compton.

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