The Las Vegas Raiders are heading into Week 1 with the kind of early test teams hate to see: their depth chart is already taking hits before the season even starts.
That’s been the story around Las Vegas for a while now. Injuries have followed this team, and not just in the usual way every club deals with over a long season.
The Raiders have been hit hard over the past two years, both in how many players have gone down and in how important those players were. Now, with the opener against the Miami Dolphins days away, they’re dealing with that familiar problem again.
Ashton Jeanty, Jackson Powers-Johnson and rookie defensive lineman Keyron Crawford have all been injured before the regular season begins. Crawford’s injury is the most severe, ending his season before it ever got going. Jeanty and Powers-Johnson are working back toward health, but even those situations underline how quickly a position group can shift from looking settled to looking thin.
Crawford’s injury is especially revealing because of what it says about the Raiders’ roster construction. He’s a rookie, so there’s no regular-season sample size to measure what Las Vegas lost on the field. But his absence still matters because it exposes how little margin for error the Raiders have at certain spots, even after adding players there.
That’s part of why defensive end remains such a telling position group for this team. Las Vegas was comfortable enough with Crawford’s health and upside to move on from Charles Snowden during the offseason, and now that decision leaves the Raiders without a player they expected to have. The injury doesn’t just hurt Crawford; it reinforces how fragile the room is.
Klint Kubiak spoke about Crawford after the Raiders placed him on Injured Reserve.
“He's come a long way. He's an extremely hard worker, a guy that has a bright future ahead of him, and he'll continue to develop even this year.
When he's rehabbing, he's going to be dialed into the meetings, and he'll still improve. But I'm excited about getting him healthy for next season," Kubiak said shortly after the Raiders placed Crawford on Injured Reserve.
Raiders assistant general manager Brian Stark also addressed the setback and pointed to the traits that made Crawford appealing in the first place.
“Injuries are the hardest part and the worst part of the game, probably. But I will say if someone's got to overcome it, I mean, you guys probably saw some of the film in the preseason and some of the things that attracted us to Keyron [Crawford] as a prospect,” Stark said.
"I mean, he's very tough. He's high motor.
He's a hard worker. He's very passionate.
Those same things are going to help him be equipped to deal with this and to battle back. And we've got great support here for him with the wellness staff, the training staff, with Alex Guerrero and Chris Cortez.
It's very unfortunate, but he'll be back."
Even with those optimistic words, Crawford stands as a reminder of how many areas on this roster could be one injury away from trouble. The Raiders made plenty of changes this offseason, including major coaching and roster moves, but the overall rebuild is clearly not finished.
That’s the bigger picture here. Jeanty and Powers-Johnson are expected to return, but their injuries still sharpen the point: one offseason isn’t enough to fix everything. Las Vegas improved, but the depth remains the biggest concern as Sunday approaches.
So while the Raiders finish up practice and get ready for Miami, they’re already dealing with the first real stress test of the season. Before they’ve even played a snap, the weakness that keeps coming up around this team - depth - is back under the spotlight.
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