The Raiders will have more of a New York flavor than the Giants with two Long Islanders on the roster for Sunday’s game in Las Vegas.
Dylan Laube, a co-winner of the Hansen Award as Suffolk County’s top player in 2017 at Westhampton High School, has been on the 53-man active roster for the Raiders all season. The running back leads the team in kickoff return yardage in his second year with the team after being selected by the Raiders in the sixth round of the 2024 Draft.
On Saturday, the Raiders elevated running back Chris Collier from their practice squad, where he has been all season. Collier, who was an All-Long Island player at Lawrence High School and also played at Nassau Community College, has not appeared in a game for the Raiders this year but played in eight NFL games last year for the Ravens and Raiders in 2024. He came into the league in 2024 as an undrafted free agent in Baltimore.
Laube and Collier trained together last offseason and built a bond over their Long Island roots.
“We’ve played against each other at all levels of football,” Laube told Newsday in August when the two were fighting for roster spots in training camp. “We played together on the Long Island all-star team for the Empire Challenge as seniors. … We got super close. He’s a great guy.”
Said Collier at the time of their connection: “It’s fate, man. It keeps bringing us back together.”
The Giants were already preparing for Laube on kickoffs. He came into Week 17 ranked 10th in the league in return yardage (783) and fifth in average return (26.1) among players with at least 30 returns this season.
“I think their return guys are good,” Giants special teams coach Michael Ghobrial said on Friday. “Raheem Mostert obviously has world class speed and Dylan [Laube] is doing a nice job back there finding creases, so it’ll be a good challenge for us this week. I know our guys are hungry and ready to go and it’ll be a good battle.”
Beyond special teams, one or both Long Island players may see time in the backfield against the Giants, too. Rookie Ashton Jeanty is the Raiders’ starting running back with 828 rushing yards and he figures to play as the team will want to get him to 1,000 yards on the season. But Mostert, the Raiders’ backup running back, is listed as questionable with ankle and knee injuries.
Laube has seven carries for nine yards and caught three passes for 18 yards this season. Collier had five carries for 12 yards and one catch for a loss of four yards in three games for the Raiders last year.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday’s Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.