The Las Vegas Raiders suffered another brutal offensive line injury in Week 10 against the Denver Broncos. Starting right guard Jackson Powers-Johnson had to leave the game early due to an ankle injury, and his season might be over.
The Raiders announced on Tuesday that Powers-Johnson is being placed on Injured Reserve. That means he has to sit out at least four games, but at 2-7, it’s hard to imagine the team will rush him back.
With Powers-Johnson headed to Injured Reserve, the Raiders had an active roster spot open. They decided to fill it by signing linebacker Jamin Davis, who has been on the team’s practice squad since early October.
Davis is a logical player to promote. He was a first-round pick of the Washington Commanders in 2021 and had some productive seasons. In his first three years, he combined for 269 tackles, 7.0 sacks and 20 tackles for loss. Davis has had some off-the-field issues and hasn’t been able to stick with a team since Washington gave up on him.
That said, he does have talent and is only 26. For a struggling Raiders team, he could find a way to make an impact. He’ll likely have to start on special teams before they give him meaningful snaps on defense.
Pete Carroll Talks Powers-Johnson Injury
It has been a trying season for Powers-Johnson, who has had a hard time keeping his starting right guard spot. It looked like he was finally coming into his own and cementing himself as the starter, but now he’ll be out for a while.
There’s been talk about head coach Pete Carroll and Powers-Johnson not vibing with each other, but the former spoke highly of the latter following the injury news.
“He will go on IR. … And it does open up opportunities that we’re going to give some guys a shot at it and see how that looks,” Carroll said Monday. “We’ve been kind of working the backup spot there for some time now, so that’s kind of in line with what’s been going on. We’re going to miss JPJ. He plays his butt off and really loves this program and shows it in everything that he does, but it’s going to be a while before he gets back. But the IR thing will take care of that.”
Dylan Parham May Have Avoided Serious Injury
For much of the Broncos game, the Raiders were without both of their starting guards, as left guard Dylan Parham also had to leave the game early. There was some worry that he might also have to miss time, but Carroll revealed that Parham is already back at practice.
“[Dylan Parham] was out there today also. So, with a long week, we have a chance for both those guys to be ready to go,” Carroll said.
It’s already hard enough to have to replace one starting guard, but replacing two would be a major problem, especially since the Raiders don’t have strong depth. It’ll be interesting to see if Alex Cappa or rookie Caleb Rogers replace Powers-Johnson on the right side.
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