The Raiders got run all over by Buccaneers rookie Doug Martin on Sunday afternoon, but there was some injury added to the insult for Oakland, too, as both starter Darren McFadden and backup Mike Goodson suffered high ankle sprains in the loss.
Despite those injuries, coach Dennis Allen says he hasn't ruled out either player from playing in Sunday's game against the Ravens.
"Darren had an X-ray that was negative, and an MRI, also, that was negative, so we’ll see how he responds this week," Allen said, per Paul Guiterrez of CSNBayArea.com. "We haven’t ruled him out for this weekend's game.
"Goodie was at the doctor getting an MRI right now, and I would anticipate he’s in the same boat."
It's kind of nuts to think McFadden will be ready to play in less than a week; he has never played more than 13 games in a season and doesn't exactly have a reputation as someone who shrugs off injuries and gets back on the field.
Plus, high ankle sprains just aren't something that running backs bounce back from a week later. The more logical scenario is that the Raiders use Marcel Reese and Taiwan Jones heavily against Baltimore and New Orleans in the coming weeks.
But Allen also wouldn't rule out bringing in another running back, saying it's "certainly a possibility" that the team could go out and grab someone off the waiver wire.
"I mean, we've obviously got to wait and see when we get a little bit more medical information on [McFadden and Goodson]," Allen said. "But that's certainly a possibility. We've got to look and see what we think later in the day, and then we'll talk over the different scenarios of what we can do and we'll make a decision."
Joseph Addai and Ryan Grant (a former Packers player while Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie was in Green Bay) are both available, but the free-agent running-back market is pretty slim. Rolling the dice with Reece and Jones, provided McFadden and Goodson can return in relatively quick time, seems like the more prudent move.
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