Raiders cornerback Gareon Conley says he’s ‘good to go’ after being carted off the field with neck injury

With five minutes left in the third quarter and the Raiders leading the Broncos 14-3 on Monday Night Football, the Raiders may have suffered a big loss to their top cornerback.

Royce Freeman broke off a 27-yard run up the right sideline. Gareon Conley came over to tackle him and soon was joined by safety Johnathan Abram who lowered his head to knock Freeman out of bounds. In the process, his body whipped around and his leg hit Conley hard on the top of the helmet, jarring his neck.

Conley laid motionless on the sideline for several minutes and the cart was called out. They kept Conley motionless, removing his facemask and loading him onto the flat board, onto the stretcher and then onto the cart to be wheeled off the field.

Good news is Conley gave a quick thumbs up just prior to be loading on the cart, signaling he had feeling to his extremities. The severity of the injury is not yet known.

Hopefully it’s nothing serious. Conley missed nearly his entire rookie season with a shin injury before coming back last year to be arguably the Raiders best defender. Losing him in the season opener would be significant.

Update: Gruden said after the game “I got good word on him that he’s going to be ok. Don’t know his status for the next game, but most importantly the kid’s all right. That was a scary hit that he took, but all reports I have are very positive.”

Update: Gareon Conley has tweeted that he hurt his neck, but is ‘Good to go’