The Las Vegas Raiders are extremely thin in the edge rusher department currently, as both Malcolm Koonce and Tyree Wilson are dealing with knee injuries.
Koonce was placed on injured reserve ahead of the season-opener, which means he’ll miss the first four games, at least, and Wilson exited the Week 1 game against the Los Angeles Chargers early due to his knee injury.
On Wednesday, head coach Antonio Pierce offered a less-than promising update for Wilson’s chances of playing in Week 2 versus the Baltimore Ravens.
“Still not looking good,” Pierce said of Wilson, per ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez. “We’ll know probably later on this week, but not looking good.”
The latest update on Wilson came from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport on Monday. Wilson is dealing with a knee sprain that isn’t expected to be a long-term issue, but his timetable to return remains unknown.
When it comes to Koonce’s status, there was nothing new there, with Pierce saying the edge rusher is “still out.”
The Raiders currently have three defensive ends on their 53-man roster in Maxx Crosby, Charles Snowden and Janarius Robinson. Las Vegas also has David Agoha and recently signed K’Lavon Chaisson on the practice squad.
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“Bunch of talent there…untapped….he has a little juice in his legs that we need right now,” Pierce said of Chaisson, per Gutierrez.
As if the matchup against a very good Ravens team wasn’t already difficult enough, the Raiders are going to have a tough time getting after Lamar Jackson if Crosby doesn’t have the game of his life.
We’ll find out for sure when the Raiders meet the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday, Sept. 15, with kickoff set for 1 p.m. ET.
