There was a near complete overhaul of the interior defensive line by the Raiders this offseason. Only Johnathan Hankins returned among the main DT rotation. All others either were not re-signed or signed elsewhere in free agency.
Coming over from Chicago was Bilal Nichols who was expected to join Hankins as a starter.
Neither of them has seen the field in training camp.
On the first day of camp, both Hankins and Nichols were placed on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list. And that’s where they’ve been for nearly a month.
In Josh McDaniels’s Monday morning press conference following the Raiders’ second preseason game, he was asked about the potential return of Hankins and Nichols and had no answers.
“We’ll kind of gauge that as we go here in the next so many days. I don’t want to put a timeframe on that. As soon as they’re ready, we’ll be ready to go. Sometimes you feel good one day and not as good the next. So, once we feel confident we’re headed in the right direction and we’re not going to take a misstep then we’ll make the right decision at that time.”
Obviously, there’s a lot of non-answering happening here. But he does suggest they have yet to feel like either Hankins or Nichols is “headed in the right direction” in terms of feeling confident they won’t suffer a setback.
For the preseason game on Sunday, it was Kyle Peko and Andrew Billings who got the start, so you figure they lead the way either to replace Hankins or Nichols in the regular season or for spots in the rotation.
Others vying for playing time include Vernon Butler, Kendal Vickers, Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, and drafted rookies Matthew Butler and Neil Farrell Jr.