Injury Report: Raiders announce Andre James’ game status

Robert Spillane’s status is in question as well

The Las Vegas Raiders are putting together their final injury report ahead of the Week 9 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals and announced that starting center Andre James will be out on Sunday, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vincent Bonsignore.

As Bonsignore notes in the post/tweet above, rookie Jackson Powers-Johnson will slide over and make his first NFL start at center, the position he played in college at Oregon. That doesn’t come as a surprise since Powers-Johnson filled in for James when James went down against the Chiefs last week. However, who lines up at left guard is a bit of a question.

Last Sunday, Cody Whitehair came off the bench and played next to Powers-Johnson, but the Raiders were also missing Dylan Parham who has been nursing a foot injury. Parham returned to practice this week though—on a limited basis—so Jordan Meredith, who was playing for Parham, could flip sides of the center in Cincinnati.

Meredith has played well while filling in for Parham while Whitehair has struggled when called upon this season, making Meredith a viable option at left guard. It’s primarily been in the preseason, but he does have experience playing all three interior offensive line spots.

The other early injury report news coming out of Las Vegas is linebacker Robert Spillane, who is dealing with a knee injury, will miss his third consecutive practice this week, via The Athletic’s Vic Tafur. However, Antonio Pierce said the linebacker’s status is still up in the air and he could suit up on Sunday.

If Spillane can’t go, the Raiders would likely turn to rookie Tommy Eichenberg against the Bengals. Eichenberg made his first career start in Week 5 while filling in for Divine Deablo. Las Vegas’ other options at linebacker would be Amari Burney, Amair Gainer or Kana’i Mauga.

The Raiders haven’t released their full injury report for Friday yet. Silver and Black Pride will update this post when that happens so be sure to check back later for more details.

UPDATE 11/1 12:11 p.m.:

Parham, Spillane and Zamir White are officially listed as questionable. Harrison Bryant will return after missing last week’s game and Maxx Crosby sat out of Friday’s practice but will play on Sunday.