Raiders Leaning on Practice Squad for Secondary Help

The Las Vegas Raiders have had to look to their practice squad due to recent injuries to several of their defensive backs.

The Las Vegas Raiders last season relied heavily on their practice squad as the inevitable injury bug poked its head throughout the 2022 campaign.

Through five weeks, that seems to be becoming the case again, particularly in the secondary.

Defensive backs like Nate Hobbs, Jakorian Bennett, David Long Jr., Marcus Peters and Amik Robertson were all on this week's injury report, with Hobbs being declared out for a third straight week and Bennett being listed as questionable for Sunday's game against the New England Patriots.

These situations have allowed players such as Tyler Hall to be elevated from the practice squad and be given opportunities to prove their worth.

"I mean, if you're on the roster or the practice squad, you're really only a man or two away from playing," Raiders Coach Josh McDaniels said when he addressed the media on Friday. "I mean, no spot, we don't have four or five backups at every spot on the active roster, so if you get -- Nate's [Hobbs] injury happened in practice a few weeks ago, and all of a sudden, it changed things, and someone has to be ready to go. And certainly, Tyler [Hall] was, and I think that's the mentality you have to get into if you're on the practice squad. 

"If you're here, and you're in the meetings, and you're going through the daily and weekly preparation, you have to assume that there's an opportunity that you're going to play and get called up, and you can never let your guard down. And so, a player like Tyler, I think is a great example.

" ... So, we practice those guys, too. It's not like they don't ever get any reps, so they get some reps, they get to compete, they're also on the show team. So, they're out there playing, we evaluate all that tape, we see it all. 

"So, we're really trying to help them improve as players, but also, they have to really push to make sure that they're up to speed on the game plan in case something like that does happen."

The Silver and Black will stay home at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas to play the New England Patriots on Sunday, Oct. 15, at 4:05 p.m. EDT/1:05 p.m. PDT.

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