Three players were lost to injury in the Raiders first preseason game. And three players were added today to replace them. The latest is recent former Broncos defensive tackle Clinton McDonald.
The 31-year-old spent the offseason with the Broncos before being among the roster cuts a couple weeks ago. The 8-year NFL veteran came into the league as a 7th round pick by the Bengals when Paul Guenther was there. McDonald most recently spent four seasons with the Bucaneers. Prior to that he spent three years with the Seahawks.
The 6-3, 297-pounder offers some inside pass rush. He has 19.0 sacks over his last five NFL seasons including 5.5 for the Seahawks in their 2013 Super Bowl run.
“He played for Guenther in Cincinnati,” Gruden said of McDonald. “But he plays nose tackle for the Tampa Bay Bucs. Gerald McCoy was the three technique. When Gerald got hurt, McDonald played the three. So, he has the versatility to play the nose or the three.”
McDonald joins fellow defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins as injury replacements as the team deals with injuries to Justin Ellis (foot) and rookie second round pick PJ Hall (ankle). And then there was the knee injury to long snapper Andrew DePaola.
“I’ve had better days,” Gruden said of the injuries to Ellis, Hall, and DePaola.
DePaola was sent to injured reserve with a torn ACL. He was replaced by long snapper Trent Sieg. While we await Ellis’s long term status, his replacement Johnathan Hankins already had a locker today. Gruden had said Hankins’ addition was a possibility “with the injuries that are mounting here.”
Obviously you would expect McDonald’s experience with the Broncos this past season will help in facing them this week. Though Gruden downplayed how much of a help in that regard McDonald would be.
The team has announced that Shilique Calhoun has been released which would make room for one of the new DT’s. That means either another player will need to be released or one of either Ellis or Hall sent to injured reserve.
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