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Las Vegas Raiders DE Janarius Robinson.
The Las Vegas Raiders can’t catch a break this season. They already have three starting defensive linemen on Injured Reserve or heading to Injured Reserve with Maxx Crosby, Christian Wilkins and Malcolm Koonce out for the season.
The team is already very thin on the defensive line and it looks like they’re losing another one for the season. According to a Dec. 17 X post from The Athletic’s Vic Tafur, defensive end Janarius Robinson is being suspended by the NFL for three games without pay for violating NFL’s Substances of Abuse Policy.
There aren’t specifics as to what got Robinson suspended but it has to be serious for the NFL to ban him for three games without pay. This leaves just Charles Snowden, K’Lavon Chaisson and Tyree Wilson as the only defensive ends on the active roster.
Robinson showed some promising flashes in the preseason and earned an active roster because of it. However, he wasn’t able to find success this season as he has 0.5 sacks in 10 games played. Considering his lackluster season and suspension, the Raiders may not bring him back next season. Now that they’re going to be missing Robinson, it’s important for the Raiders to add a defensive end or two in free agency.
DE Options for Raiders
Crosby hasn’t been sent to the Injured Reserve yet so once that happens, he’ll open up a roster spot. There are only three games left in the season so Robinson won’t be back unless he’s able to appeal his suspension.
David Agoha is the only defensive end on the Raiders’ practice squad so there’s a good chance he’ll see some action over the final three games. Las Vegas is 2-12 and eliminated from the playoffs so they don’t need to take any big swings at defensive end.
They just need bodies to help finish out the season. At this point in the season, there aren’t many great options in free agency. Randy Gregory is still a free agent and could be one of the better options available. That said, the Raiders may prefer to try out some younger players.
That could lead to them looking at other teams’ practice squads. It’s difficult to know who they might target but they need to add some depth as Snowden, Chaisson and Wilson aren’t enough to finish out the final three games.
Maxx Crosby Gives Injury Update
Prior to this season, Crosby had not missed a single game in his career. He’s played through injuries before so this current ankle injury was quite serious for him to call it a season. He recently gave some insight into his process right now.
“I’m in Charlotte right now, took a red eye last night with my wife, and we’re meeting with Dr. Anderson today, and tomorrow I got surgery,” Crosby said on the Dec. 16 episode of the “Let’s Go!” podcast. “So, yeah, unfortunately versus Tampa got rolled up really bad. It was very similar to the first time it happened, to be honest. But this one ended up being worse.”
“As much as it pains me – I obviously wanna be on the field and wanna be with my teammates and everything like that – it wasn’t meant to be, you know what I mean? You don’t have full control of everything all the time.”
