As has been the expectation<\/a>, starter Geno Smith is not expected to play because of an ankle injury he suffered Sunday against the New York Giants.<\/p>\nThe Raiders, 2-14, will get the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2026 with a loss Sunday and, according to ESPN, have an 89 percent chance of getting the pick, which they would be expected to take a quarterback, likely Indiana\u2019s Fernando Mendoza.<\/p>\n
Carroll said Pickett and O\u2019Connell will compete for the starting job in practice this week, but he expects Pickett to start because he has been Smith\u2019s backup all season. Still, O\u2019Connell will play some.<\/p>\n
He has not played yet this season as he came back in November after breaking his wrist in the preseason finale. The Raiders sent a fifth-round pick to the Cleveland Browns for Pickett two days after O\u2019Connell\u2019s injury. O\u2019Connell, a fourth-round pick in 2023, has played in 20 NFL games with 17 starts.<\/p>\n
Pickett finished Sunday\u2019s loss and started in a 31-0 road loss at the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 15 when Smith was out with shoulder and back injuries.<\/p>\n
Smith may have played his final down with the Raiders. Of course, there is a real question if he will return next season. Smith, acquired from the Seattle Seahawks for a third-round pick, has had a terrible first season in Las Vegas. He has thrown a lead-leading 17 interceptions. Fittingly, he was injured on his second interception of the game Sunday.<\/p>\n
In addition to Smith, defensive tackle Adam Butler (bicep) and guard Dylan Parham (illness) didn\u2019t practice Wednesday. Butler was hurt Sunday and Parham missed the game. Wide receiver Jack Bech (back) and running back\/returner Raheem Mostert (knee, ankle) both practiced fully. They both missed Sunday\u2019s game and should be on track, barring setbacks, to play Sunday.<\/p>\n
Also, as expected, tackle Kolton Miller\u2019s 21-day practice window expired without being being added to the 53-man roster. So, his season is over. He\u2019s been out since Week 4 with an ankle injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In what is looking more and more like a preseason game, the Las Vegas Raiders are taking an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2065],"tags":[7,1744,393,4241,2455,2454,6,525],"class_list":{"0":"post-644901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-las-vegas","10":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","11":"tag-las-vegas-raiders-news","12":"tag-lasvegas","13":"tag-lasvegasraiders","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-raiders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115818375639245132","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}