Maurice Jones-Drew will not play against New England Patriots

Oakland Raiders veteran running back Maurice Jones-Drew was one a few big-name acquisitions with experience to join the team in free agency this offseason, but he hasn’t been able to make much of an impact after requiring surgery on his hand after Week 1. The Raiders actually only listed MJD as questionable before their tilt against the Houston Texans game, which was a surprise given that Jones-Drew actually went under the knife.

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Anyway, the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported this morning that Jones-Drew is not expected to play against the New England Patriots today, and now the NFL Network’s Steve Wyche reports that Jones-Drew will, in fact, miss the team’s contest against the Pats with a hand injury. It will be interesting to see if he can come back for next week’s game, because we have no idea how serious this injury is.

Expect to see plenty of Darren McFadden and some Latavius Murray, like last week, but I think most of us are hoping that Murray and fullback Marcel Reece get more touches at McFadden’s expense. The Patriots run defense had issues stopping Knowshon Moreno and Lamar Miller in Week 1, but they were very stout up front in the 2012 and 2013 seasons.

Maurice Jones-Drew had just 11 yards on nine carries against the elite New York Jets run defense in Week 1, so those are his only status for the season thus far, thanks to this injury. He was also listed questionable this week and actually seemed to have a legit shot at playing as a game-time decision.