Las Vegas Raiders coach Klint Kubiak said he and the front office have tough decisions to make over the next couple of days as they must trim their roster from 89 players to 53 by 3 p.m. Sunday.
That also means he has to have tough conversations ahead of him as he goes through his first cutdown day as head coach.
“It’s awful,” Kubiak said on a conference call Friday. “You develop relationships with these guys since April and they give you their heart and their soul and all their time, and eventually it comes down to this.”
The silver lining, according to Kubiak, is that there is not necessarily a finality in getting cut by an NFL team at the end of training camp.
“There are so many examples of guys that have been cut and make practice squads and make a team, or guys that get claimed by other teams, or guys that get cut five times and make 12-year careers,” he said. “So there’s lots of examples that you can share with them to encourage them because there’s a lot of good football players that are out there in the NFL that have been sliced and diced multiple times. Coaches too, hired and fired. You just get better. You get better and you learn and you fail forward.”
The process isn’t easy on the decision-makers, either.
Kubiak said there are position groups that are going to be more difficult than others to decide who makes the roster, though he declined to identify them.
The Raiders are expected to face tough choices on the back end of the receiver and offensive line room, as well as on the defensive line.
And even after they get down to 53 players, the job isn’t done.
The Raiders own the top spot on the waiver wire, so they will have their pick of any players cut from other teams that they feel could provide an upgrade on the roster.
“This will be a really important couple of days here,” he said. “We’re first in the order, so that’s something we’re going to look hard at.”
Here are other observations from Kubiak’s conference call from the day after the preseason wrapped up with an 18-12 loss to the San Francisco 49ers:
Medical updates
Kubiak said he did not yet have an update from the medical staff on the status of rookie edge defender Keyron Crawford, who was carted from the sideline with an ankle injury in the third quarter of Thursday’s game.
Wide receiver Dont’e Thornton, who has missed most of training camp, still has not returned to practice.
“He’s still working to come back from an injury, working really hard at it too,” Kubiak said. “And that’s part of football, injuries are part of football, and he’s straining to get better to get back on the field.”
As for star running back Ashton Jeanty, Kubiak continued the company line that he is “on the mend” after suffering an ankle injury in practice Sunday.
Thornton and Crawford appear to be potential candidates to be shifted to injured reserve ahead of Sunday, which would give them a chance to return to the team starting after Week 4 while not counting as part of the 53-man roster.
Jeanty is also a candidate, but there seems to be hope that won’t be necessary as he has not been ruled out for the season opener Sept. 13.
“We’ve got another week to assess how he’s going to look going into this first game,” Kubiak said. “But we’re counting on him.”
QB depth chart
Kubiak has said he believes the Raiders have three NFL quarterbacks on the roster, though last week he did not commit to keeping all three on the roster.
There is still a scenario where Aidan O’Connell could be traded or even waived. But if he is on the roster, he could be the backup quarterback with top pick Fernando Mendoza serving as the emergency third-stringer so as to avoid a scenario where he is thrust into the game without a full week of reps.
And that’s assuming Kirk Cousins is the starter, as expected, even though Kubiak hasn’t even formally committed to that.
“We have three guys that are ready to play,” Kubiak said Friday. “And it’s going to be some hard decisions on who’s one, who’s two, and that’s not a decision that we have to make today. But those are discussions that are ongoing.”
Need more from WRs
Kubiak has made clear he wants to get more out of his wide receivers.
Bishop Gorman alum and free-agent signing Jalen Nailor appears to be particularly in the crosshairs.
Nailor was one of the only projected starters to play in the second preseason game and Kubiak called out his inability to haul in a high throw from Mendoza that led to an interception Thursday against the 49ers.
“I thought it was an excellent throw,” Kubiak said. “He ripped it just like we asked him to on time. Yeah, it was a little bit high. Jalen’s got to make the play.”
Nailor was able to leap and get his fingertips on the ball thrown high over a linebacker down the middle, but it wasn’t a routine catch.
The play came one snap after Nailor made an incredible twisting one-handed catch on a ball thrown well behind him in the flat.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.
