Team news: Las Vegas Raiders | Page 6

The Raiders have played without tight end Brock Bowers the last two weeks and his status for Week 7’s trip to Kansas City was a topic at head coach Pete Carroll’s Monday press conference.

“I’m hopeful, but we’re looking after him,” Carroll said. “There’s a big bye coming up and all that kinda stuff. An extra week, a couple of weeks you’d get, before you’d have to come back. I’m optimistic always, but that doesn’t mean we’re getting him back. You look at the long haul of it, it might be best to just guarantee that he’s full speed and back. So we’ll see how we handle that.”

Bowers is dealing with a knee injury that he suffered in Week 1 and played through for several weeks before sitting out in Week 5. On Monday, Carroll said he’s hopeful that Bowers is well enough to play against the Chiefs but certainly left to door open to Bowers coming back in Week 9 after the bye. The Chiefs-Raiders game is an earlier game on Sunday so owners should have plenty of warning.

In all likelihood, the quarterback capable of breathing life into the Bengals’ season isn’t on the roster.

Current backup Brett Rypien and practice squad quarterbacks Sean Clifford and Mike White are not in consideration to replace Browning this weekend against the Packers.

Any options left open to, theoretically, replace Jake Browning in Green Bay would have to come from outside the building.

Related players: Kirk Cousins, Russell Wilson, Jameis Winston

Reports Tuesday say the team has released White, which could be an indication a new face is on the way in. Three of the bigger names to be stop-gaps until Joe Burrow returns are Cousins, Wilson and Winston, but it remains to be seen if the Bengals pull the trigger and make a deal. The Bengals are hoping to stay in the hunt until Burrow returns and the talent is still there on offense. It also looks like Browning has another chance this week to keep his starting spot.

Raiders tight end Brock Bowers suffered a knee injury during the team’s Week 1 win over the Patriots and has been dealing with it since.

Bowers did not play in Las Vegas’ loss to Indianapolis on Sunday and his status is now up in the air for Week 6.

“[H]e’s week-to-week,” head coach Pete Carroll said in his Monday press conference. “We got to see what’s going on and see if we can get him back. And he’s dying to play. We went all the way till Saturday’s walk-through to see if he could go, and it didn’t feel like he could. So, we’ll just start over again, do it again this week.”

Related players: Michael Mayer

Bowers owners are likely thinking back to when they heard the knee injury wasn't considered serious. Since then, Bowers had limped through a couple of weeks and now is in danger of missing his second-straight week of action. As the story said, Mayer also didn't play due to a concussion but could be back this week and may be a decent replacement option for Bowers owners.

No practice for a second straight day for Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, who has been battling a knee injury.

Related Players: Ian Thomas

What started as a potential "rest day" looks to be a little more serious now. Ian Thomas can be left out of streaming consideration, even if the sophomore misses Week 5.

Raiders TE Brock Bowers, who was a limited practice participant Wednesday due to a knee injury, didn’t practice today.

Related Players: Ian Thomas

Hopefully this was more of a rest day, but Bowers has been dealing with this issue for a few weeks now. Ian Thomas can be left out of streaming consideration, even if the sophomore misses Week 5.

In the first two weeks of the season, Jaguars No. 2 overall pick Travis Hunter played more offensive snaps than defensive snaps.

That trend flipped in Jacksonville’s Week 3 victory over Houston.

Hunter was on the field for 37 offensive snaps (53 percent) and 43 defensive snaps (68 percent).

Related players: Brian Thomas Jr., Dyami Brown, Parker Washington

He’s now played 59 percent of Jacksonville’s offensive snaps this year and 47 percent of defensive snaps, plus four percent of special teams snaps, the story said. But the more concerning news is his usage. He had one pass for 21 yards on two targets in Week 3. He had eight targets in Week 2. Hunter has 10 receptions for 76 yards, with only two of his catches resulting in first downs this season. He's now a huge question mark for fantasy lineups heading into Week 4.

Jaguars WR Brian Thomas Jr. (wrist) is off the injury report and good to go Sunday.

Meanwhile, Texans WRs Christian Kirk (hamstring) and Braxton Berrios (hamstring) are both off the injury report and set to make their season debuts.

Related Players: Travis Hunter, Dyami Brown, Nico Collins, Xavier Hutchinson, Jayden Higgins

Brian Thomas should continue to be slotted in as a fringe WR1/2 play, with Christian Kirk is much further down the list as a WR4/5 as the ball continues to be spread around behind Collins.

Pete Carroll was also asked about Ashton Jeanty's slow start to the season and the Raiders' run game woes. He preached patience with the young back, while also noting they need to find ways to get him the ball more often, via the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

"We're just getting started (with Jeanty)," Carroll said. "He's breaking into the NFL. He's figuring it out. He'll get more carries. We have to run the ball more effectively. We only got (68 yards), and that's not enough. We need more than that. We're bringing him along. More will come."

The story said Jeanty took blame for the slow start in both Week 1 and on Monday night, saying he could have broken off bigger plays. But the story points out the Raiders offensive line could be at fault too. The line continues to struggle and the holes just aren't there. The Raiders are now 31st in rushing yards and yards per carry - only ahead of the Bengals. The good news is the team wants to get Jeanty even more involved, so owners may need to stay patient with their young back.

Jaguars WR Brian Thomas had an NFL-worst -9.1 receiving EPA yesterday. Next closest player in Week 2 was at -6.8.

Previous career low for BTJ was -5.5. Pretty easily worst game of his career

There have been reports out Monday that BTJ is dealing with a wrist injury as well, although Shipley didn't get into that aspect. The wrist injury also wasn't on the injury report. Shipley did say BTJ's third worst game of his career was in Week 1 of this season against the Panthers, so that's maybe the bigger concern for owners. Shipley added that Thomas Jr. and QB Trevor Lawrence are not only not on the same page, they're not even in the same book, and it dates back to training camp. He feels that issue carried over into Week 1. BTJ's possible wrist injury will be something to monitor this week. It's a potentially tough matchup against the Texans defense in Week 3 for the Jags.

Raiders tight end Brock Bowers returned to practice Saturday after missing Thursday and Friday.

Bowers was recovering from the knee injury he suffered in the season-opening win over the Patriots. Perhaps the Raiders were just resting him. He told the media after the game his knee was fine. With Bowers practicing Saturday, his chances now bode pretty well that he’ll be available for Vegas (and his fantasy owners) Monday night against the Chargers. Bowers is TE5 entering Sunday with Tucker Kraft having already played.