Raiders Camp — Sep 3: Cousins Named, Mendoza Waits

The question our last episode said the coach would not answer has an answer. "Kirk's going to be the starting quarterback. He's played really good football. I'm really happy with all three of our quarterbacks, and Kirk's had a really good offseason and a very good camp. He's earned it," Klint Kubiak said Wednesday, per Adam Hill at the Las Vegas Review-Journal — and on how far the plan runs, "We're to Miami first." Cousins took a planned rest day Wednesday and did not practice. What the decision means for the rookie, per Myles Simmons at Pro Football Talk: Fernando Mendoza is the first number-one overall pick since Baker Mayfield in 2018 not to start his team's opener, after Murray, Burrow, Lawrence, Young, Williams and Ward all did. John Spytek's account of the room Tuesday, per Levi Edwards at the team's site: "We obviously have a lot faith in Kirk and Fernando's the No. 1 pick. Aidan's played some really good football at times over his career here." On why three stayed: "No. 1, I think they all earned it. I also don't think you can have enough good quarterbacks." So the July premise — not whether Cousins starts but when Mendoza takes over — is back to being the premise, and the asterisk we put on it last week comes off.

The top waiver priority went to a cornerback. The Raiders claimed Darrell Luter Jr. off waivers from San Francisco on Monday, per Sam Gordon at the Review-Journal, with the team announcing it Tuesday — the 49ers' 2023 fifth-rounder, 27 games and three starts in three seasons, and a player five teams put claims on, per Jordan Dajani at CBS Sports — and waived cornerback Decamerion Richardson, their own 2024 fourth-round pick with 27 games, to make room. Assistant general manager Brian Stark, per Edwards: "Darrell's a good football player. He's played quality regular season snaps. He's a good special teams player." Ezekiel Trezevant at Sports Illustrated counts the investment at cornerback as three draft picks and two free agents in two years, and in his Monday roster breakdown called it the position group that faces the most questions heading into the season. It is not the receiver Kubiak said was "a possibility" from the first slot. Spytek on why, per Hill: "We'd all love to look there and think that you're going to get a million good players, but the other teams are pretty good at knowing who to keep and knowing how to build their teams too." None of the players Las Vegas waived on Sunday were claimed, Gordon wrote on Monday.

The receiver room lost a body anyway. Dont'e Thornton Jr. went to injured reserve Monday, per the team, no injury and no return designation disclosed in the team's release, out until at least Week 5 against New England — a second-year receiver who had not practiced in weeks despite earlier optimism about the preseason, per Gordon, and who had been taking his snaps on special teams, per Fernando Alfaro-Donis at Sports Illustrated's Raiders site. The six receivers we told you the club kept are five: Bech, Benson, Nailor, Tucker, Young. Spytek on the group, per Hill: "We have a young room... there's a lot of growth potential in that room still." Trezevant, on Wednesday: "The Raiders do not have any proven receivers."

17 on the practice squad as of Monday, by the team's own announcements, and every one but the last came off the Raiders' own 90 — the organizational surprise of the cutdown, per Trezevant. The offense signed Monday, per the team: running backs Roman Hemby and Dare Ogunbowale, tackles Niklas Henning and Kamar Missouri, center Will Putnam, tight ends Chris Myarick and Albert Okwuegbunam Jr., and receiver Deven Thompkins. The defense: defensive tackles Brandon Cleveland, the seventh-round pick, and Gary Smith III, defensive ends Jahfari Harvey and Cian Slone, linebacker Cameron McGrone, safety Devin Lafayette and cornerback Greedy Vance. Then kicker Kansei Matsuzawa, the Japan native on the International Pathway slot that makes 17 possible. The seventeenth and only outsider: receiver Cody White, four seasons in Seattle, 14 games in the last two, and last year's championship team with Kubiak as coordinator, per Gordon — a fit Hondo Carpenter had flagged the day before on experience with Kubiak and mutual respect, per Trezevant. And one man came back to the 53 rather than the squad: linebacker Segun Olubi, released Sunday, signed again Monday, per the team — 51 games in Indianapolis, all 17 last year with 11 special-teams tackles and a blocked punt, against the Raiders. Nose tackle Laki Tasi signed to Tennessee's practice squad Monday on its international exception, per Jim Wyatt at the Titans' site.

One fix for the page. Keyron Crawford's season-ending injury is an Achilles, per Kubiak on Wednesday via Josh Alper at Pro Football Talk, not the ankle reported on cut day. Two updates alongside it. Ashton Jeanty's sprain is now dated: Hill reported August 25 that he went down at the Sunday camp practice reaching for a low pass in the flat and could not put weight on the right leg. And the Meredith trade to the Jets — Meredith and a 2029 seventh for a 2027 sixth — is dated August 31 in both clubs' announcements, a day after the reporting; the deal is the same, the paperwork is a day later.

Three reserve placements the reporting covers: Crawford on injured reserve, season over, per Hill; tight end Carter Runyon on injured reserve with a return designation, eligible around Week 5, per Hill and Gordon; Thornton added Monday, per the team. Jeanty did not practice Wednesday. Kubiak, asked whether he is optimistic for the opener, per Simmons: "yes," and "He's continuing to improve. You guys saw him out there yesterday. He's still on the mend." Spytek: "I expect him to be back as quick as he can, maybe quicker than some people would've expect." Trezevant's read of the initial 53 had 10 defensive linemen on it, the deepest group on the roster; Stark on Tonka Hemingway: "Has worked himself into a spot where he's got a chance to start." Spytek on the whole: "We made a lot of hard choices, and we've got a long way to go, a lot of work to do with a young roster."

Back in July we previewed the Raiders' season as one real question wearing a quarterback controversy as a disguise — not whether Cousins starts Week 1, but when Mendoza takes over, because the rebuild's clock runs through the rookie's timeline. What the clock is running from is last season: three and 14, an offense that ranked last in expected points added per play — the measure of how much each snap moved the expected score — last running the ball, thirtieth throwing it, and 64 sacks taken, the most in the league, in front of a defense that ranked twentieth. Cut day put an asterisk on the disguise. This week took it off: the coach named the veteran, the general manager said the rookie is the number-one pick and left it there, and the top waiver claim went to the secondary rather than the young receivers the veteran throws to. The July frame holds exactly as written. The only date that matters is still the one nobody has said.

Next is the Dolphins, Sunday, September 13, at Allegiant Stadium. What to watch: whether Jeanty takes a full practice in game week, and how many of the five receivers are healthy for it. The Recap follows the game.

_Data via nflverse._