Raiders pass rusher to miss season opener due to knee injury
The Raiders have suffered a significant loss before their regular-season opener Sunday.
Defensive end Malcolm Koonce, who had a career-high eight sacks last year, sustained a knee injury during practice Thursday. He is out for the Raiders’ first game against the Chargers on Sunday.
Coach Antonio Pierce did not say Friday how long Koonce is expected to be out. A one-game absence is a blow, but a lengthy one will be difficult for the Raiders to overcome.
The team will lean on second-year defensive end Tyree Wilson, the seventh overall pick in 2023, and veteran Janarius Robinson in Koonce’s absence. The Raiders could also elevate defensive end Charles Snowden from the practice squad.
Rookie left guard Jackson Powers-Johnson (illness) and rookie cornerback Decamerion Richardson (hamstring) are out Sunday as well. Powers-Johnson was the Raiders’ second-round pick in April’s draft and Richardson was the team’s fourth-round selection.
“Yeah, I mean, for all the guys — when one guy’s out, it’s next man up mentality,” Pierce said.
Koonce, a third-round pick in 2021, came into his own last year.
He finished with 17 quarterback hits and 43 tackles and was a consistent pass rusher opposite Maxx Crosby by the end of the season. His development was a key reason why the Raiders allowed the ninth-fewest points in the NFL last year.
The team was counting on Koonce, a pending free agent, to continue his ascent. The Raiders had visions of Koonce, Crosby and free-agent signing Christian Wilkins terrorizing opposing offensive lines.
Those dreams will have to be put on hold for now.
Spotlight on Wilson
Wilson said he didn’t want to start the season filling in for an injured teammate. But he’s ready to step up.
“I’ve got to go out there and do my job,” Wilson said. “It’s no bigger or smaller. I’ve got to go out there and take it one play at a time, one step at a time and do the job. Not for myself but the whole defense.”
The Raiders understood when they drafted Wilson he would get off to a slow start as a rookie due to a foot injury from his final season at Texas Tech.
He wasn’t cleared to begin football activities until the last week of training camp in 2023. Wilson never settled in until the final five games of the season, when he had 15 quarterback pressures and two sacks.
Koonce’s emergence took some of the pressure off Wilson. The Raiders were planning to rotate Wilson in at edge rusher and use him inside some on passing downs.
Those plans will have to change for the opener. Wilson will need to take on a larger role. He said he feels much different entering his second season than he did entering his first.
“It’s night and day,” Wilson said. “But you know, I’ve still got a long way to go. But for me to get there I’ve got to play this game and then watch the film and then go to the next game. But my only focus this week is the Chargers. That’s what our focus is on.”
The Raiders will need to lean on Robinson, too.
He’s been plagued by injuries and inconsistency since the Vikings drafted him in the fourth round in 2021. He played in seven games for the Raiders last year and did enough to stick around, finishing with eight tackles and a sack.
Robinson showed enough this preseason to stick on the 53-man roster. Now, he could be in line for a lot of snaps in the opener.
“Good thing about it, Tyree Wilson and (Robinson), those guys have had a lot of opportunities to play,” Pierce said. “And we expect them to step up and play well.”
Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on X.