Silver Minings: Hunter Renfrow misses practice with hip injury

It’s been a tough season for Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Hunter Renfrow so far. When on the field, Renfrow has looked like a shell of the Pro Bowler he was last year, and he’s missed two out of the team’s five games with a concussion. Well, the hits keep coming for Renfrow as the Raiders released their injury report on Thursday, revealing he was held out of practice with a hip injury.

The wideout wasn’t listed on Wednesday’s report, suggesting this is a new injury and likely happened in practice. There’s still one more practice before Sunday’s game against the Texans, so there’s plenty of time for him to heal up and play. However, if Renfrow can’t go, Las Vegas could be down a couple of key offensive weapons as tight end Darren Waller also missed Thursday’s practice with a hamstring injury. Waller already suggested earlier this week that he’ll miss this weekend’s contest.

If those two can’t go, Keelan Cole would likely fill in as the slot receiver and Foster Moreau will make his first start of the season at tight end. Cole filled in for Renfrow during Weeks 3 and 4 but only had one catch for 12 yards, while Moreau just came back from a knee injury that caused him to miss the team’s last two games and has been limited in practice.

Other options for the Silver and Black would be wide receiver DJ Turner, who was recently designated to return from injured reserve, and tight end Jesper Horstead, who had three grabs for 19 yards in relief of Waller against the Chiefs.

The rest of the Raiders' injury report was pretty short yesterday. Only two other players were listed and both were limited; linebacker Jayon Brown (hamstring) and wide receiver Mack Hollins (heel).

In other Raiders links:

• Patrick Graham looking for consistency: “It’s going to start in practice. I can’t stress that enough. It starts with practice, and we got to become more consistent out there on the field because there have been some good quarters of football,” the defensive coordinator said.
• Self-scouting focus of the bye week: “We had a big correction time during the bye week to self-scout, to look at ourselves and really just be honest about it,” quarterback Derek Carr said.
• Raiders who could be traded: deadline is coming up in less than two weeks, could Vegas make a move?
• Defense too complicated?: according to Mike Pritchard, the Raiders' defensive scheme is similar to a former defensive coordinator’s: “We saw that with [Paul] Guenther a while ago and I think there were some signs of that early on this year so far.”