Justin Tuck has played his last down for the Oakland Raiders

By Jonathan George | Oct 16, 2015

During this past Sunday’s loss to Denver, Oakland Raiders DE Justin Tuck tore a pectoral muscle during the fourth quarter of the game, per ESPN’s Bill Williamson. The injury will force the Raiders to send Tuck to the injured reserved list, meaning he will be out for the remainder of the season. It is bad timing in many respects for the veteran Tuck, as it is very likely that Tuck has played his last down for the Oakland Raiders.

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Regardless of how this season pans out, as well as Tuck’s recovery going into next season, it might be Tuck’s last season in Oakland for many reasons. For one, he is a 32-year-old guy that will be well into 33 at the start of the 2016 season. He has a fairly long history of upper body injuries that have forced him to miss good chunks of the season; he’s only played 16 games twice in a 10 year career, with the last being 2010 for the New York Giants.

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Secondly, he was scheduled to be a free agent at the end of 2015, and with the Raiders making a concerted effort to go young, especially along the defensive line where the Raiders will now play 2nd round rookie Mario Edwards Jr. in Tuck’s absence, it will be tough to justify bringing back an aging, injury prone player next season.

Sure, Tuck is a tough guy who brings ton’s of leadership and experience to the table. And while head coach Jack Del Rio has shown that he highly covets those kinds of intangibles when he is putting a team together, the bottom line is that those traits only get a team so far on game day.

Bringing Tuck back in 2016 would bring definite injury risks with the move, and signing a player to a multi million dollar contract that most likely will not see the end of the season is a bad idea.

The current Raiders management have shown a propensity to “kick the tires” on questionable veterans coming into the season. They brought in Trent Richardson who hugely disappointed, and they also signed quarterback Christian Ponder only to cut him before the season started.

There is always a chance Tuck is signed to a short-term, team friendly “prove it” deal in the offseason; to be fair, he was playing well before the injury (Ranked 11th out of 49 overall 3-4 DE by profootballfocus..com). When he is in the game, he has shown the ability to be a good run stopper, and can sporadically rush the passer with good aggression causing rushed passes or flushing quarterbacks out of the pocket.

A single sack in 5 games this season, however, isnt’t exactly an awe-inspiring pass rushing statistic.

In the end, the Raiders will have to decide if bringing Tuck back for 2016 is a better option than going with a younger player. If Edwards Jr. plays well, or if another player steps up, the decision might take care of itself. But if Tuck’s replacement struggles, the decision might appear to be a lot more murky.

The fact is that Tuck’s injury history along with his age relegate him to a rotation player at best going forward, and if the Raiders want to put a long-term starter at DE across from Khalil Mack, they can’t go back to the well with Tuck. He just isn’t young or healthy enough to be considered a consistent dual threat at DE anymore, and that is what this team needs from their starting end to be good.

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