Getty New Las Vegas Raiders WR Malik Turner.
The Las Vegas Raiders‘ offense has hit a major roadblock with the 24-0 loss to the New Orleans Saints. The offense has shown flashes this season but hasn’t been nearly as consistent as most expected. Much of that has been due to the play of the wide receivers.
Mack Hollins is the only wide receiver on the roster who has exceeded expectations. Davante Adams has played well but was held to just one catch against the Saints despite star cornerback Marshon Lattimore being out with an injury. Hunter Renfrow, Keelan Cole and DJ Turner have been nonfactors this season with the three of them combining for just 21 catches. If the current group of wide receivers continues to struggle, the Raiders might need to make some changes. The team announced that they’ve signed Malik Turner to the practice squad.
Turner has bounced around the NFL since getting signed as an undrafted free agent of the Seattle Seahawks in 2018. He spent two years with the team before moving on to the Dallas Cowboys. He also spent two years in Texas. This season, he was a member of the San Francisco 49ers and played three games with them before getting released. The 6-foot-2 veteran wide receiver has 29 catches for 414 yards over his career.
Davante Adams Appears Ready to Play vs. Jaguars
Part of the reason Adams was a non-factor against the Saints could’ve had to do with the fact that he missed a couple of practices last week with an illness. It appears that the illness is still a factor as Adams has shown up on the injury report this week and was limited at Wednesday’s practice. Fortunately, he was a full participant on Thursday, which bodes well for him being fully recovered for Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Latest injury report for the #Raiders. WR Davante Adams (illness) was a full participant in practice. LB Divine Deablo (back/wrist) was limited.
It also seems like a certainty that quarterback Derek Carr will be ready to go as he recovers from a back injury. The one player to watch is tight end Darren Waller. He’s missed the last two games with a hamstring injury. He appeared in line to return last week but faced a setback. He continues to be limited in practice this week so there’s a chance he could miss another game on Sunday.
Adams Talks Loss to Saints
The loss to the Saints was the first shutout loss the Raiders have had since 2014. This current roster is far more talented than the 2014 squad. The Raiders are 2-5 now and can’t afford to lose many more games if they hope to make the playoffs. Adams was asked if the loss to the Saints was a wake-up call.
“Yeah, I mean, we knew that already, but sometimes you got to experience it and there’s certain things,” Adams said Wednesday. “Nobody came into the game saying we want to be flat, but the reality is that you got to come back and make those changes right off the bat. And obviously we learned from it and sometimes you hope to skip a step, but that obviously didn’t happen this past time. So, we’ll obviously learn from what we did and come back and make the corrections so we can come out and start fast this time.”