Last minute Raiders Changes, News and Reports Before NFL Week 9 vs. 49ers...

The trade deadline is three days away and arguably the biggest game of the Raiders season comes tonight against the 49ers. And this week on many different shows, just from fan speculation, social media, everybody's asking the same question. When are we going to be seeing Fernando Mendoza? Kirk Cousins is having an insane season and coming off the cleanest game of the year. Nobody in that building wants to make a change right now. You may be on your way to the playoffs, The 49ers are 6-1 and the Raiders are 4-4 and a bad loss in Santa Clara could change things very quickly for this team. Today isn't just a regular game. It decides what direction this team could be going in in just 48 hours. Let's start with what Cousins just did. Against the Jets, he went 19 of 26 for 247 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. That's a 141 passer rating, his best in a single game since November of 2024. He has 19 touchdown passes on the season, that's second in the entire NFL. He has thrown a touchdown pass in all eight games. Since 1999, only Derek Carr in 2017 and Rich Gannon in 2001 held longer runs as Raiders. And two weeks ago, the pitcher looked a lot different. After a fourth straight loss against the Rams, Kubiak got asked about Mendoza and he said at this point, we're thinking about everything. Mendoza has thrown eight passes all season, six completions for 48 yards in relief against New England. Cousins is also a cheap option to keep. It does make a lot of sense. The Falcons are paying $8.7 million of his salary this year, and the Raiders only pay $1.3 million. And you can see this from all things Las Vegas Raiders. Highly doubtful the Raiders trade Cousins after Sunday. Mendoza will have his time, but only once they're completely out of playoff contention. Kay Adams is already looking five years out. She said pitcher Patrick Mahomes at 36 years old, and Mendoza is the top of the class in the AFC. The way I see it, if they win later today, it keeps the door wide open for playoff contention. There's no world you would want to trade Kirk Cousins at this point. And Mendoza can learn from a guy like that. He is a mentor, but a really bad loss. Could teeter things in the direction of maybe we look at trade packages for Kirk Cousins really quick before we get into more rumors, reports and a look at what's happening later today. A quick reminder to hit that subscribe button. If you guys are enjoying the daily content on everything that's happening with your Las Vegas Raiders, make sure to go down below, hit that free subscribe button. We just hit 3000 subscribers. Thank you so much for the support out here on the channel, guys. And we're well on our way to the new goal of five. Thank you once again for all the support, and I'll keep you guys updated every step of the way with your Las Vegas Raiders. But everyone's talking about this game because there's huge implications, really, for both teams, but mostly the Raiders. But this video is brought to you by Kalshi, and if you take a look at some of the markets going down later today, they're quite interesting. On Kalshi right now, the 49ers are at about 80% to win. On Sunday, most people are trading on the 49ers. The Raiders are only at 20%. And a lot of people are trading on this game as well. Almost $2.5 million has already been traded on this game. So if you believe in Kirk Cousins in the offense, they can pull it off with so many injuries to the 49ers. $25 traded on this game pays out up to $118. And if you want to try out Kalshi right now, use the link in the description and the pin comment As all new users get. Get $55 instantly added to their account when you trade your first 25. Once again, use the links in the description and use promo code DIGESTNFL when signing up. You get $55 instantly in your account when you trade your first 25. Thank you very much once again to Kalshi for sponsoring this video. The odds for today's game say San Francisco, but the injury report tells a little bit of a different story. The Raiders officially ruled out one player on Friday, defensive tackle Thomas Booker with an ankle injury. Darian Porter missed a large portion of last week and Wednesday with a groin injury. He was limited on Thursday and then was a full participant on Friday. He's questionable. But he's trending in the right direction. We'll probably play later today. D'Andre Thornton Jr. and a few other players were all limited at some point this week. All three were full goes on Friday. Jack Besch is back too. He came off the injured reserve last week after breaking his forearm. And he already has a touchdown in three games. Kubiak also already named his three captains for this one. Brock Bowers, who's been unbelievable, Jeremy Chin, and Darrell Luter Jr. It's the first time for Chin and Luter as captains. But the biggest story heading into this game might not be the Raiders' injuries, defense, or even offense. It's the other side of the coin. The 49ers officially ruled out Mike Evans, Debo Samuel, and Christian Kirk. Evans and Samuel alone have 626 receiving yards. Demarcus Robinson and Nate Hobbs are still on the injured reserve. Shanahan said Robinson will most likely be activated, but he wasn't sure on Hobbs. But Nick Bosa and Christian McCaffrey are both playing, and they still have Brock Purdy. Eric Stokes said that Brock Purdy is having a heck of a season. On-time quarterback, you've got to be on your P's and Q's. But Purdy has cooled off. His passer rating over his last five games is 93.4. Before that, it was 124. Their only loss came two weeks ago, 29-20 against Atlanta. Purdy threw two interceptions, and then they had the bye week. The biggest problem coming into this game for the Raiders is the defense. We know that this is a huge problem. It cannot be trusted to close out or win a game. The Raiders give up 28.8 points a game. That's 31st in the NFL. And the 49ers scored 28.1 a game. That's fourth best. This probably is going to turn into a bit of a shootout. There is good news, though, and one silver lining to this game. PFN graded the Raiders as the best offense in football in week 8 at 86. Kirk Cousins has been unbelievable this year and has thrown for 313, 295, and 247 yards in his last three games with seven touchdowns. Brock Bowers is being Brock Bowers. Seven catches for 92 yards and two touchdowns against the Jets. He leads the team with 547 receiving yards. And Kubiak said it himself after the Rams game. You can't win in this league having to throw it as much as the Raiders have. been throwing it. The run game on offense is actually quite a problem as well. 77.3 yards a game. That's 31st in the league. It's on Cousins and Bowers again to try and win this game. And in a game against the 49ers, I know there's a lot of injuries, but if the offense puts up 30, they're going to be in the game. But if it doesn't, it's going to get ugly very quickly. And all of this is going down somewhere that the Raiders haven't played a regular season game since. They left Oakland. Their last game in Oakland, in the Bay Area, was December 15th, 2019. Only three Raiders from those Oakland teams are still here. Max Crosby, Colton Miller, and A.J. Cole. And Crosby still somehow in trade rumors, the guy that every contender would love to call about before Tuesday's trade deadline, said this week that he loves being a Raider and that this is where he wants to be. And Raider Nation is one of the most well-traveled fan bases in the entire league. Expect a lot of black and silver. Now, the 49ers heading into this game, again, without three receivers. That is a huge loss for them. And the Raiders are as healthy as arguably they've been all season. And a lot of people are talking about Kirk Cousins right now. Could this be an inflection point for him and this team? 19 touchdowns, 1.3 million. Does he make it through Tuesday's trade deadline? A lot of people are talking about what's going to happen with the QB position moving forward. And a lot of people tend to believe that Mendoza's time is going to come when the playoff door is slammed firmly shut and that there is no way that they make the playoffs, but they're not there yet. A loss later today would certainly make things very interesting. A lot of new storylines would come out of it. But in terms of what to watch, Bowers, of course, he's going to do his thing. Porter plays, plays well. Is he dealing with something still? So let me know in the comments down below. Should the Raiders keep Kirk Cousins past the trade deadline? There's a lot of big storylines heading into this game. A lot of eyes on this one and things can really turn around. Very, very quickly, win or loss, depending what happens later today, there's going to be so many stories tomorrow in terms of what direction this team is going in. And I'll have you covered for everything here on the channel after the game. So guys, my name is Darius Dominguez. This is Raiders Digest, and I'll see you in the next video.