Injuries are set to deplete the Raiders’ cornerback group. Las Vegas will be without Trayvon Mullen and Damon Arnette for at least the next three games, with both having been placed on IR Saturday.
A foot injury left Mullen sidelined this week, while Arnette is dealing with a groin issue. The Raiders ruled both out for Week 5. This stalls a nice start for Mullen. For Arnette, this represents another setback in an underwhelming start to his career.
A second-round pick in 2019, Mullen became part of the Raiders’ Clemson-heavy draft that year. Mullen reprised his role as a starter this season, being a first-unit player in new DC Gus Bradley‘s defense. Pro Football Focus graded Mullen as a top-25 corner through four games, with the third-year defender joining Casey Hayward and Nate Hobbs in an atypically strong Raiders coverage corps.
One of this Raider regime’s surprise first-round picks, Arnette has not seen the field much in his second season. The Ohio State product has played just 60 defensive snaps through four games. While the Raiders tried him as a starter for much of his 2020 season, Arnette suffered a thumb injury during his rookie training camp and then aggravated the issue later. He played nine games last season. Thus far in 2021, Arnette has joined fellow Jon Gruden–Mike Mayock first-rounder Clelin Ferrell as a seldom-used backup.
The Raiders also activated running back Jalen Richard and cornerback Keisean Nixon from IR. Set to begin his sixth season with the Raiders, Richard returned to practice last week. It will be interesting to see how the Raiders use Richard, given Kenyan Drake‘s presence, but the shifty reserve’s re-emergence should at least help for depth purposes. Peyton Barber is set to miss time with turf toe.
Raiders were looking good this season. Then Jon’s email! I bet that spirals the season. Mark should fire him now for just cause, get out of that contract and let your 80%+ black athletes know he won’t stand for that language now matter how old it is.
But Mark won’t.
WOW — Didn’t take long for that stone to be thrown. Personally I have not had a chance to read the email, I will take your wish with a grain of salt given your history of personal hatred towards Jon Gruden and anything Raider.
I will say that I am surprised you have not grabbed your pitchfork to lead the cancel culture way to petition Rodger Goodell into forcing Marc Davis to sell the team that you hold such distain for…. Bravo for the self control and ability to take 20% off the top.
Gruden said DeMaurice Smith had “Michelin sized lips” and called him “Dumboriss Smith” in an e-mail to Bruce Allen during the lockout negotiations in 2011.
Gruden said that he meant to regards to Smith’s alleged propensity to lie (at least in his view), with rubber lips being the insult for a liar.
Arnette needs to step up or ship out.
A 1st rounder from THE Ohio State U., as I recall. Renown for their NFL DBs. (cough)
Seldom-used Arnette and Ferrell.
Sometimes, when guys are a big reach, there is a reason for that. I didn’t care for the Ruggs pick either, but at least he was drafted approximately where he was supposed to be drafted. You can’t keep reaching up ten spots. Just draft out of that pick and hope that your guy drops.
Arnette’s loss is addition by subtraction, which is a phrase I actually thoroughly dislike. In his case, however, his presence hurts the team both through his poor play and propensity for penalties. I could hold out hope that Ferrell might have a chance to be at least a rotational piece maybe if I were Raider fan, but I don’t see much chance that Arnette would be helpful. I don’t see much in either’s future, but Arnette’s penalty propensity is a bigger shadow over him unfortunately because of the position he plays. Corner penalties are just built worse because they’re always automatic first downs.
Mullen, however, is someone that Vegas would like to have. They’ll have to find a decent replacement to step up in his absence.