The Las Vegas Raiders are in their final stretch of the season with just two games left. At 2-13, the team is out of the playoffs and only has draft position to play for.
While head coach Pete Carroll has stayed committed to playing players who are healthy enough to play, it might be time to start thinking about shutting some hurt players down. Jordan Meredith came into the season as the starting center, but he’s gotten banged up in recent weeks.
The Raiders have made the decision to place him on Injured Reserve, which will end his season. Meredith has looked good at guard previously, but looked overmatched at center for much of the season. It’s hard to imagine he’ll be brought back with plans to start at center against in 2026.
To replace Meredith, the Raiders have signed Antonio Mafi to the active roster. This will be Mafi’s second stint on the active roster. With Mafi going to the active roster, the team signed rookie defensive end Jahfari Harvey to the practice squad.
He was on the practice squad all season before briefly getting promoted to the active roster. The Raiders decided to cut him before he had a chance to play, but now he’s back on the practice squad. He could be a player worth giving a chance to play the final two weeks of the season.
Raiders Finally Got Running Game Going vs. Texans
The Raiders have had the worst running game in the NFL last season, but that changed against the Houston Texans in Week 16. The offensive line finally gave running back Ashton Jeanty some room to work, and he had a huge game.
Head coach Pete Carroll was very happy to see the Raiders move the ball on the ground.
“When you can play to your kicking game and your defense and run the football, then things do fit,” Carroll told reporters Monday. “And that’s a tremendous winning formula, not for us only, the game calls for it that way. There’s guys [that have] been talking that way for a lot of years in this league on all levels. The game hasn’t changed in that regard.
“So, it’s really pleasing to be able to see that be in front of us, and it was really clear how obvious it was. And we were ahead. We were in the game. And so, we were able to run the ball and keep the feeling going that we can do what we need to do to make our first downs and all of that. Guys were coming through. We converted better on third down for the first time in a while, and it was part of the good feeling about how we were playing in the makeup of it.”
Carroll Talks Caleb Rogers’ Development
One thing that has helped the Raiders is inserting rookie offensive guard Caleb Rogers into the starting lineup. While he hasn’t been perfect, he’s been much better than Alex Cappa was.
Carroll thinks that Rogers still has work to do, but is impressed with what he’s seen from the rookie.
“Opportunity has been great for him,” Carroll said of Rogers. “That was the first shot. He had a chance to get in there and get going, and he’s battling. He’s got a ton to learn. There’s a lot of plays that he can get better at, but he’s holding up. And yesterday was another one of those games.”
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Raiders Place Starter on IR, Sign Replacement & Rookie DE appeared first on Heavy Sports.