Eight players not participating in Raiders first minicamp practice, but Jon Gruden insists injuries ‘nothing serious’

Today preparation for the 2019 season officially ramped up. The Raiders began mandatory minicamp practices. Prior to this, all practices were voluntary, so while absences were sometimes noteworthy, attendance was not required. Gruden said all players were at the facility, though there were eight players not practicing Tuesday.

Players not on the field today were:

C Jordan Devey

G Denzelle Good

G/T Denver Kirkland

WR Saeed Blacknall

LB Brandon Marshall

LB Koa Farmer

CB Gareon Conley

CB Isaiah Johnson

For minicamps, it’s the last preparation before the long offseason. It’s supposed to mimic training camp, so you’d like to have as many guys out there as possible. And as we know, injuries in minicamp can linger into training camp. Gareon Conley for example. Gruden doesn’t see any of the injuries that were keeping playing out today as being cause for concern.

“We’ll have a couple guys that won’t participate much this afternoon for various reasons, nothing serious, but we’ve had an unbelievable attendance on every day of our offseason program,” said Gruden. “This is just an exclamation point on that.”

Practice will again take place from 2-4 on Wednesday preceded by press conferences including special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia. Thursday’s practice is still TBA, which means it could be canceled.