Raiders Week 9 Injury Report: Team announces Andre James’ playing status

The Las Vegas Raiders are making their final injury report before their Week 9 game against the Cincinnati Bengals and announced that starting center Andre James will miss Sunday, according to Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

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’s no surprise since Powers-Johnson filled in for James last week in James’ loss to the Chiefs. However, there is some question as to who is on the left.

Last Sunday, Cody Whitehair came off the bench to play alongside Powers-Johnson, but the Raiders were also without Dylan Parham, who had a foot injury. However, Parham returned to practice this week – on a limited basis – allowing Jordan Meredith, who played for Parham, to rotate sides at center in Cincinnati.

Meredith has played well as a replacement for Parham, while Whitehair has struggled when deployed this season, making Meredith a viable option at left-back. That was mostly the case in the preseason, but he has experience playing all three interior positions on offense.

The other early injury news out of Las Vegas, according to Vic Tafur of The Athletic, is that linebacker Robert Spillane, who is dealing with a knee injury, will miss his third straight practice this week. However, Antonio Pierce said the linebacker’s status is still uncertain and he could start 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, filling in for Divine Deablo. Other options for Las Vegas at linebacker would be Amari Burney, Amair Gainer or Kana’i Mauga.

The Raiders have not yet released their full injury report for Friday. Silver and Black Pride will update this post if this happens. So 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 was unable to be at practice on Friday but will play on Sunday.