Maurice Jones-Drew will not play this week

Oakland Raiders No. 1 running back Maurice Jones-Drew needed surgery on his hand this week, and he confirmed the injury after missing practice yesterday to start the week. The Raiders were unable to get past the New York Jets in Week 1 in a narrow loss, and it will be interesting to see if they can avoid going 0-2 by defeating the Houston Texans. If so, it looks like they’ll have to do it with Darren McFadden as their No. 1 back, as Jones-Drew will reportedly miss this week’s contest.

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Multiple sources close to CSN Bay Area’s Scott Bair have “indicated” that Jones-Drew won’t play this week, though nothing formal has been announce yet. It seems highly unlikely for the Raiders to roll with their veteran this week so soon after he had surgery, especially since McFadden is perfectly capable of being the feature back and is at around MJD’s level anyway (unless if the former Jacksonville Jaguars superstar “wakes up”).

Jones-Drew and the Raiders have been predictably mum and vague on his status for this week’s game, but it looks like we should pencil him on the inactive list until further notice. Last week, he put up just 11 yards on nine carries, which is still putrid even if he was facing the Jets elite run defense. Latavius Murray should get some snaps this week if MJD is indeed out, so that will also be something worth watching.

Per sources close to Bair, MJD actually broke his hand against the Jets, and, if this is true, it means that he should be locked in as a DNP this week, especially since Bair writes that his hand was “visibly swollen”.