Raiders will hold ‘a lot of the players’ out of Saturday’s preseason home game

By Case Keefer (contact)

Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021 | 12:09 p.m.

The Las Vegas Raiders will make their game debut in front of fans Saturday night at Allegiant Stadium at much less than full strength.

The team held its final practice ahead of facing the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday morning, and afterwards, coach Jon Gruden made it clear that he planned to rest many of his bigger-name players for the next few days.

“I don’t think you’re going to see a lot of the players play unfortunately because of the reality of what this is,” Gruden said. “This is an exhibition game, but to unite with our fans and kick off football season in Las Vegas is something we’re really excited about, something we take a lot of pride in.”

Not playing most starters in the first preseason game is the traditional norm around the NFL, but there are some questions regarding how teams will approach it this year with a shortened exhibition schedule. To make room for a 17^th regular-season game, the preseason has been cut from four to three games.

The showdown with the Seahawks is the Raiders’ only home game before their Sept. 13 regular-season kickoff against the Baltimore Ravens, but fans will have to wait until then to see any semblance of the real roster on the field.

“We’ve got some young players that are competing for jobs that need to play so we’re going to look at them,” Gruden said. “A couple of veteran guys won’t play but you’ll see our first-round draft choice and you’ll see our young center.”

That was in reference to right tackle Alex Leatherwood and center Andre James, who are two pieces of a rebuilt offensive line that’s vital to the team’s success this season. Many may have assumed the entire offensive line would play a series or two, but Gruden hinted that left tackle Kolton Miller, left guard Richie Incognito and right guard Denzelle Good would all stay on the sidelines.  

Leatherwood, James and the backups will likely be blocking for third-string quarterback Nathan Peterman for most of the night. Recent free-agent signing Case Cookus, who went undrafted out of Northern Arizona last year, could also see action.

Backup Marcus Mariota, who would have been expected to play the first half a week ago, hurt his leg in the final play of Sunday’s practice according to Gruden.

Mariota practiced with the team Tuesday but threw two interceptions Gruden blamed partly on the injury. He didn’t participate on Thursday with Gruden describing Mariota as “very much questionable” to play against the Seahawks.

Starter Derek Carr, meanwhile, has only played one series in the preseason since Gruden began his second tenure as Raiders’ coach four seasons ago. He didn’t rule out getting on the field against the Seahawks, but also made it sound highly unlikely.

“We never know,” Carr said. “You try and see through the noise a little bit, but we never know…It’s totally whatever Gru wants. We always prepare as if we’re going to play.”

The Raiders may approach the preseason game similar to Sunday’s public practice where a large group of veteran starters including running back Josh Jacobs and defensive end Yannick Ngakoue sat out. Tight end Darren Waller hasn’t practiced for more than a week out of caution, according to Gruden, and would be the ultimate long shot to suit up.  

The Raiders’ relaxed approach to the preseason with their starters may sound at odds with how well they’ve performed in the games the last few years. They went 6-2 in eight combined games in 2018 and 2019 — there was no preseason last year — under Gruden.

Gruden has been one of the winningest current head coaches in the league during the preseason, going 36-18 all-time. Seattle’s Pete Carroll has also traditionally been strong with a 25-15 lifetime preseason mark.

So it might be more younger players finding for a roster spot than frontline stars, but the game should still be spirited and competitive.    

“We’ve been going against each other for so long,” cornerback Casey Hayward said. “We’re trying to protect ourselves. You’re not trying to talk to your own teammates or hurt your own teammates, things like that. I think going into the preseason games, it’s ‘hey we finally get to go against somebody else and compete against somebody else that’s trying to beat us.’”    

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.