Silver Minings: Best players will be on the field at Denver on Sunday

Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden made it clear on Wednesday when asked if he may rest some starters Sunday at the Denver Broncos because the Raiders out of the playoff picture.

“That almost makes me laugh. I mean, who do you want to see? We’ve seen about 80 players this year,” Gruden said. “I want to see my starters play. But yeah, we’re playing just about every eligible player possible.

“So, to answer your question, no, we’re going to try to win the game with the healthy, available bodies that we have, and we’ve seen enough different players play at every position. We need to see the best 11 on each side of the ball and play together well enough to get a win.”

Clearly, Gruden feels that because of the coronavirus (the Raiders put 34 played on the COVID list this season, which is the third most in the league) and injuries, that plenty of young players have seen the field. So, his best healthy players are going to play Sunday. That’s all well and good, but getting younger players such a straight end Foster Moreau over 38-year-old Jason Witten, for example, might be beneficial moving forward.

In other Raiders’ links:

• Brick-by-brick: The Athletic has a cool story on the great meaning of the bricks at Allegiant Stadium.
• Old friends: A couple of former Raiders are headed to the playoffs with the Buffalo Bills.
• Mail call: The San Jose Mercury News has a mailbag.
• Award time: The San Jose Mercury News has Raiders’ season awards.
• No TV: It’s going to be difficult for a lot of Raiders’ fans to see Sunday’s game.