AFC Wild Card 2017, Raiders vs. Texans Inactives: Donald Penn, More

Looking at the inactives for the AFC Wild Card Game between the Oakland Raiders and Houston Texans on Saturday.

Both the Oakland Raiders entered their AFC Wild Card matchup on Saturday with injuries to quarterback. Well before the inactives were ever announced, we knew that neither would have the guy they wanted under center. For the Raiders, that’s obviously Derek Carr, who suffered a fractured fibula in Week 16. Then the Texans lost former backup Tom Savage to a concussion in his second start after taking over the job from Brock Osweiler.

However, the Raiders come into Saturday’s matchup facing more than just that. Even with Connor Cook getting the start at quarterback for Carr—and for banged up, but active Matt McGloin—at least he would be playing behind one of the league’s elite offensive lines…right? Right?

Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Starting left tackle Donald Penn has been dealing with injuries all week, trying to recover fast enough to be able to play in the AFC Wild Card contest. Instead, it was announced on Friday that he’d be unable to go. Sadly, the first missed start of Penn’s entire career will be a playoff game.

With Penn, Savage, and Carr inactive, let’s take a look at the players joining their teammates by not being on the active roster for Saturday:

Despite the big names on these reports, there is some good news from the Raiders that can be dug from their list of inactives.

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For one, rookie safety Karl Joseph will be going in this game after being listed as questionable this week. That’ll be a huge boost to the secondary. Moreover, defensive tackle Mario Edwards Jr. was battling an illness on Saturday morning, but is also active. They’ll still be up against it with the key pieces missing, but things are more favorable than they otherwise could’ve been.