It could still be a while yet before we see Richie Incognito return for Raiders
August 19th. That’s when Richie Incognito went down with a calf injury during scrimmages with the LA Rams.
Two weeks later, Jon Gruden had this to say about how his starting guard was doing:
“Pretty good. He’s getting better,” Gruden said of Incognito’s status. “He doesn’t say much, but we hope to have him on the practice field at the middle of next week when we get our revved-up preparation started.”
A week later, which was the start of the week leading up the season opener, Incognito was not on the practice field but Gruden said of his status “We’re still hopeful that he’ll play.”
Two days later, Incognito hadn’t practiced and Gruden conceded that the veteran guard would not be playing, but added “there’s a good chance he’ll
play in the next game.”
Spoiler: Incognito did not play in the next game either.
In Gruden’s final press conference prior to his resignation as head coach, he gave one more update on Incognito. It was that he was targeting the bye week for a return.
The bye week came and went and still no Incognito.
Today, November 10, interim head coach Rich Bisaccia gave his update on Incognito, and it wasn’t nearly as hopeful as Gruden’s many updates were.
“We think Trayvon [Mullen’s] a little bit closer than Richie,” said Bisaccia of the return of the two players. “We’re hoping that we can get him hopefully to practice maybe the Dallas week and play the next week. You know we have that short week in there for Thanksgiving, but he’d been doing much better day-by-day in here.”
The week after the Cowboys game is the Washington Football Team on December 5. If Bisaccia is looking at that date for Mullen’s return, and Incognito is farther out, then we are potentially looking at at least mid-December — Week 14 — before Incognito returns.
That’s a far cry from his initial diagnosis of hopefully being available for the season opener.
At this point, it’s a legitimate question if Incognito will be returning at all.
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