Raiders News: Darren Waller officially ruled out

The Las Vegas Raiders are set to take on the Washington Football Team tomorrow in a crucial game with a lot of postseason implications on the line, but unfortunately, the Raiders will be without top target Darren Waller.

ESPN’s Field Yates is reporting that Waller won’t suit up for tomorrow’s game with the knee injury he suffered on Thanksgiving against the Cowboys.

This doesn’t come as much of a surprise, though.

Earlier this week, Las Vegas was just happy to find out that Waller only strained his IT band and didn’t have a more serious and potentially season-ending knee injury. Interim head coach Rich Bisaccia later would go on to say that the superstar tight end is considered “week-to-week”, and Waller didn’t practice all week.

As Yates notes, that should lead to an increase in playing time and targets for No. 2 tight end, Foster Moreau. In Week 7 against the Eagles, the only other full-game this season that Waller missed, Moreau hauled in 6 catches for 60 yards and a touchdown. But he only caught one of four targets for three yards in the half-game as the team’s primary tight end last week.

Luckily, the situation this time around is much more similar to that Week 7 outing, where the team could work the LSU product into the gameplan instead of having to adjust on the fly. The Raiders certainly hope Moreau can replicate that effort as taking on a quality opponent like the Football Team without the offense’s second-leading receiver is less than ideal. However, Washington has plenty of injuries of its own.

Starters Landon Collins and Wes Schweitzer have been ruled out, to go along with reserves Benjamin St-Juste and J.D. McKissic. Starting guard Ereck Flowers was also listed as questionable and missed the last two days of practice with a foot injury.

It’s just that time of year where everyone is banged up and every team’s depth will be tested, so if the Raiders want to make their second playoff appearance since 2003, they’re going to need a few reserves to step up, the first of which being Moreau.