The Raiders kept the practice-squad churn rolling Monday, and the latest pair of additions says a lot about how Las Vegas is thinking heading into the opener against the Miami Dolphins.
On one side is Tim Keenan III, a 6-foot-1, 327-pound rookie nose tackle with real mass and some clear run-stopping ability. On the other is Patrick Gurd, a familiar fullback who spent the spring and summer in Las Vegas and now returns after briefly losing his spot. To make room, the Raiders released defensive tackle Gary Smith III and safety Devin Lafayette from the practice squad.
Keenan comes to Las Vegas after being a seventh-round pick by the Rams in April, following four seasons at Alabama. He left the Crimson Tide with 95 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks, and he spent the offseason with Los Angeles before being cut and later landing in Vegas. He’s the kind of interior body that can plug gaps, stack blocks and make life miserable for run plays working inside.
The appeal is obvious on tape and in profile. Keenan lines up over the center as a nose tackle and, at his best, brings a strong upper body and enough lateral movement for a player his size to work through traffic. That showed up in college, where he was able to get into the backfield, take on double teams and help disrupt blocking schemes.
The preseason with the Rams, though, was a different story. Keenan got work at 0-, 1-, 3- and even 5-technique, but outside of the opener he didn’t do much.
In that first game, he recorded a sack and three run stops. Over the next two contests, he totaled just one tackle.
His pass-rush win rate checked in at 0.0%, and while that wasn’t exactly the expectation for him, it did underline that he’s still a limited player. He also logged only eight special-teams snaps in three games, all on field-goal block duty.
That makes the move at least mildly notable, because Gary Smith III had a respectable preseason and had been in the Raiders’ building all offseason learning the defense. Las Vegas is clearly betting Keenan offers either a better fit or a higher ceiling, even if the move comes only days before the regular season starts.
Gurd’s return is a different kind of move. He was brought in as a rookie minicamp invitee, won out over UDFA Matt Lauter, and stuck around all summer while competing with Connor Heyward for the fullback job in Klint Kubiak’s offense. He drew some encouraging buzz during OTAs and training camp, but he never really built enough momentum to unseat Heyward, who had a strong offseason.
The Raiders barely used Gurd on offense in the preseason, giving him only 14 offensive snaps across three exhibition games. The results there were not especially strong. Still, he was useful on special teams, where he played 32 snaps across three units and came out as a net positive.
For now, the bottom of the roster keeps changing, and the Raiders are clearly still sorting out which young pieces they want closest to the active lineup when the season opens.
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