Las Vegas Raiders Suffer Another Wide Receiver Injury Blow
Justin Churchill breaks down Dante Thornton Jr.'s injury and what it means for Las Vegas.
Video Transcript
The Las Vegas Raiders made another pretty shocking roster move.
They finalized their 53-man roster on Sunday night, and then Monday they finalized their 16-man practice squad.
But in between all that, a few more roster moves were made.
Obviously, we know that they waived Decameron Richardson in order to use their waiver wire spot to bring in Daryl Luter, the cornerback that used to play for the San Francisco 49ers.
And now they have placed wide receiver Dante Thornton Jr. On injured reserve.
Now, a lot of people have questions about this because when they placed Keiron Crawford on injured reserve, it meant that his season was over.
Well, when you place a player on injured reserve before the initial 53-man roster and you do not have a tag of designated to return, that means your season is over.
Carter Runyon was placed on the IR during before, excuse me, the initial 53-man roster, but he had a tag of designated to return, so he will be back within four games.
The Raiders waited until after the 53-man roster came out to make some moves, and they're going to place Dante Thornton Jr. On injured reserve, which means he's going to miss at least four games, but he's not done for the year.
Now, his injury has kind of been a weird one because, you know, he hasn't done much of anything this preseason.
So, you know, what the official deal is there is something that Clint Kubiak and his staff will have to let us know if they so please to do.
But he's kind of been missed.
This wide receiver room has not really had any juice in the offseason.
So that's not to say Dante Thornton Jr. Would have provided exactly what they need.
He's still a second-year player who has a lot to prove and a lot to work on.
But this wide receiver room needs all the help they can get.
They're now going to be without a guy who runs 4-3 speed.
He's 6'5", and a legit deep ball threat if he can catch the ball.
And that's something that they don't have a ton of, if at all, on this roster.
And then there are other moves that they made.
They re-signed linebacker Shangoon Alubi in a corresponding move, and they added Cody White to the practice squad.
Cody White is a wide receiver.
Alubi, great special teams guy, had a fantastic preseason.
They signed him this offseason.
They really like him.
Now, as for White, he's got four years of NFL experience, and he is a Super Bowl champion.
He was on the Seattle Seahawks last year with Clint Kubiak, so the familiarity is there.
He's got 169 career receiving yards, 11 career catches, and one career receiving touchdown.
Cody White, he's 6'3", Michigan State guy, like we said before, and he's got familiarity in Clint Kubiak's offense from last year.
He's played with Seattle the last two years, and then in 2022, 2021, he played with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
So Cody White is not a guy that you're expecting to come in and give that juice that the Raiders need at the top end of their wide receiver room, but it's a body, and they need help there.
With Dante Thornton Jr. Now on IR, they need a lot of help there, and they needed help there before that.
So we'll see what Cody White can do.
They obviously really wanted him, and they're signing him.
Clint Kubiak has a guy that he's familiar with that's familiar with his offense.
