Oakland Raiders Are Battling Through Injuries

Well, seems like the injury bug has stopped in for a short time.

Some names—DeAngelo Hall, Janikowski, Shane Lechler, and Nnamdi—have cropped up in recent days, and even Kiffin sounded off on the matter.

In the words of MAD Magazine...what, me worry?

You can be a little worried. Anyone would be, but then, it's also early in the preseason. We just finished the first game. It's amazing the speed in which these players heal from injury. Tyvon Branch, for example. He undergoes surgery, and they're talking he'll be ready for the game on Friday.

Sure, not all injuries are that fast to recover from. Some you play around. Hall, for example, is working on either a broken bone in his hand, a bone bruise, or a sprain. It lingers, but he says he's still able to play. Heck, if he makes interceptions with it...keep him injured.

The main reason I'm not worried is this. We've got almost a month before everyone who makes the team plays in Oakland against Denver. At that point, we hope to have everyone healthy, ready, and have a little more depth in key positions.

Adding Adam Archuleta was a good choice, both to give us another live body to work with, but also as a way to motivate the existing players in front of him. If there's someone that can take their place, players take the game a bit more seriously.

I'm sticking by the opinion of the Raiders going 10-6 this year. If we're missing one of the two CBs and we lose a safety like Wilson, we'll probably slide back to 8-8.

But thankfully, we haven't lost a key cog, either Russell, or one of the three amigos. If we lose one of those guys...it makes matters a lot more difficult to measure.

So, here's to Friday night. A good, physical game.