Silver Minings: Running back picture gets clearer after first round of roster cuts

With tomorrow’s deadline quickly approaching, the Las Vegas Raiders got a head start on trimming their roster down to 53 players by letting a few players go and placing others on injured reserve yesterday, including a couple of running backs.

The Raiders announced that they waived running back Darwin Thompson and placed Brittain Brown on IR. Thompson was added to the roster about halfway through training camp and was always considered a long shot to make the team, while Brown had a chance to compete for playing time this past month. However, Brown suffered an injury early on in camp and now he won’t be eligible to play for Las Vegas this season.

This does bring more clarity to the Silver and Black’s running back room, though. The Raiders got good news this week as Josh Jacobs and the club agreed to a one-year contract, ensuring that he’ll be in the fold for the season opener in less than two weeks.

To fill out the depth chart behind Jacobs, Las Vegas will have to pick from Zamir White, Ameer Abdullah, Brandon Bolden, Damien Williams and Sincere McCormick. They’ll likely keep four players at the position, meaning two of those five will be looking for a new home on Wednesday.

The Raiders also cut the following transactions yesterday; linebacker Isaac Darkangelo, cornerback Ike Brown, defensive tackle Doug Costin, cornerback Bryce Cosby, quarterback Chase Garbers and guard Vitaly Gurman. Wide receiver Chris Lacy was waived from the injured list, and tight end Jacob Hollister and wide receiver Isaiah Zuber were put on injured reserve.

In other Raiders’ links:

• Final 53-man projection: Silver and Black Pride takes a stab at predicting how the rest of the Raiders’ cuts will go down.
• Cutdown day tracker: bookmark this page so you can stay on top of who is in and who is out on Tuesday.
• Watch Jacobs re-join Raiders: the team released a video of the 2022 rushing champ signing his new deal.
• Alex Leatherwood cut from Chicago Bears: the Raiders 2021 first-round pick has no been let go by two different clubs in back-to-back years.