Raiders Week 4 Inactives: Sack Leader and Starting Receiver Inactive

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Getty An Oakland Raiders defensive player has been fined again.

The Oakland Raiders will be more banged up than expected.

Despite seemingly getting healthier throughout the week, the Raiders have some unexpected inactives for their Week 4 matchup against the Indianapolis Colts. No. 2 receiver J.J. Nelson — who was not on the injury report all week — will be inactive for Week 4 due to an ankle injury.

Furthermore, team sack leader Benson Mayowa will also be sidelined.

Here are all seven of the Raiders’ inactives for today’s game.

Nelson had entered this week as the No. 2 receiver behind Tyrell Williams — especially following the release of former starting receiver Ryan Grant. Nelson’s absence means Oakland will have to dig even deeper into the depth chart to find their next starting receiver, which means it’s up for grabs between Hunter Renfrow, Keelan Doss and Trevor Davis. Because of Harris’ injury, the Raiders only have four healthy wide receivers.

The 28-year-old Benson Mayowa has 3.5 sacks through just three games and is the primary backup defensive end. Outside of Mayowa, just two other Raiders have sacks. Not a good sign for Oakland as they look to put pressure on Colts quarterback Jacoby Brissett.

Gabe Jackson and Dwayne Harris aren’t shocks because they were already ruled out for this game before inactives were announced. DeShone Kizer is expected on a week-to-week basis because he’s the third-string quarterback while Dakota Allen was signed off of the Los Angeles Rams‘ practice squad this week as an insurance policy. However, with linebackers Vontaze Burfict and Nicholas Morrow now healthy, the Raiders have little need for Allen at this point.

Raiders’ East-Coast Woes

As the Raiders attempt to snap a two-game losing streak when they take on the Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium, they’ll have to overcome a major hurdle — their consistent struggles playing on the East Coast during 1 pm ET games (10 am on the West Coast).

The Raiders are by far the worst team in the NFL playing on the East Coast at 1 pm ET since 2000. They have a .216 winning percentage in comparison to the 69-120 record (.365 percentage) that other West Coast teams have put up during that same time frame.

Making matters worse is the fact that the Raiders haven’t beaten the Colts in Indianapolis since Week 5 of the 2001 season — when Rich Gannon was the starting quarterback.

Colts Also Banged Up for Week 4

While the Raiders have their own injury woes to worry about, they can feel a little better knowing that the Colts are just as banged up for their Week 4 tilt. Indianapolis officially ruled star wide receiver T.Y. Hilton out for Week 4 due to a quad injury, while safety Malik Hooker, linebacker Darius Leonard and defensive end/tackle Tyquan Lewis is also out.

Despite Hilton’s absence — he is Brissett’s favorite target with 26 pass targets — head coach Frank Reich is confident in the rest of the receiving core, via Andrew Walker of the Colts’ official website.

“I think we’ve had a little bit more depth early, coming out of camp going into that first game with six receivers active, which is a little bit unique,” Reich said of how the depth has evolved at the wide receiver position in Indy. “When Devin (Funchess) went down, it was like, ‘OK, that’s a blow, but OK, we still got five active.’ We will see how it plays out here with T.Y. But we have a lot of confidence in these guys. These young guys are stepping up and are ready to go.”

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