The Raiders came out of their nationally televised opener 1-0 but are down at least one key player for the season. Denzelle Good suffered a torn ACL, according to ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler (on Twitter).
Good spent most of last season as a starting guard for the Raiders, and the team used the veteran blocker as a starter Monday. Good was set to start opposite Richie Incognito, having won Las Vegas’ right guard gig. Incognito missed Monday’s game due to injury, thrusting second-year guard John Simpson into the starting lineup opposite Good. It would appear Simpson will stick in that role.
Good, 30, went down on the Raiders’ first drive. They moved recent addition Jermaine Eluemunor into the lineup opposite Simpson. The Raiders re-signed Good this offseason, giving him a two-year commitment at $4.18MM on average.
A former Colts draftee, Good hovered as a depth option between the 2016 and ’20 seasons. After spending the ’16 season as a primary Indianapolis starter, Good served as a backup in Indy and Oakland. However, the Raiders kept blocker around since claiming him off waivers late in the 2018 season. They were forced to use him as a regular following Incognito’s September 2020 injury. They will now hope Incognito can return from his latest injury soon.
Jon Gruden expressed concern Good, Yannick Ngakoue, Marcus Mariota and Gerald McCoy suffered serious injuries. It is not known if that is the case for the latter trio, though Good’s prognosis provides an ominous sign here. McCoy was carted off the field Monday night.
A lot of injury articles today.
it’s like an obituary.
See, now would be a good time to have not cut or traded half of your starting offensive line all at once just to “get younger”.
Indeed. This was a prime example of “getting younger” not necessarily equating to “getting better”.
You mean like Trent Brown who lasted 7 plays with the Patriots, as opposed to 3 last year for the Raiders, before getting hurt? Also since you have 5 starters on the OL how do you cut/trade 2.5 players?
Yeah, that’s called an expression, but sure. In reality, they got rid of more than half of their starters. Does that make you happier?
The Raiders’ line was not any better last night and lost their starting guard. Instead of just jettisoning everyone at once, they should have done piece at a time-if they insisted on doing it all. Brown lasting 7 snaps with New England is irrelevant for two reasons: firstly, unless you knew 100% for a fact that he would have done the same in Vegas, you can’t say that it was inevitable. However, the argument can be made that it was time to go in another direction. That’s fine, I have no issue with that. The second reason is that Brown was not the only starter gone. Rodney Hudson and Gabe Jackson, both of whom are interior linemen, were unceremoniously let go with little compensation. Jackson was the starter replaced by Good. “But, but, Gabe Jackson got hurt and Denzelle Good was good!” So? The NFL has a thing called depth, and it’s important, which is why we’re having this conversation. Also, Hudson may have been the best center in the league the last four or so years.
If you’re turning over half your line-excuse me, MORE than half-it might pay to have consistency in who’s left. Maybe you transition in parts instead of all at once. Instead, they jettison everyone at once and replace them with inexperienced starters and rookies with no backup behind them just to “get younger”. Younger is a plus, but teams need to be concerned about how getting younger makes them better, not how it makes their age average look. Purposefully replacing three starting (and mostly quality) linemen in one offseason is a dumb move without adequate depth to compensate for injury or ineffectiveness.
Not GOOD News!!
Stfu
Might be a good week for a strategic forfeit.
They can’t win more importantly can’t take the punishment.
They managed to win on Monday, so I don’t know how accurate that is. Their line and secondary do need some help, but I think the Raiders can at the very least compete with any team in the league. Pretty much the entire AFC West is in competitive shape, even if not all are necessarily title contenders.