Midway through the third quarter of last Friday’s game in Arrowhead, Raiders wide receiver DJ Turner returned a kickoff 28 yards and went down hard and didn’t get back up. He was eventually helped off the field and didn’t return.
Today, Turner was placed on injured reserve. The talented special teams player will be missed for his gunner and return abilities as well as being the team’s starting slot receiver this season after the departure of Davante Adams in trade with the Jets.
To fill his sport on the roster the Raiders signed RB Sincere McCormick from the practice squad.
McCormick is a former undrafted free agent out of University of Texas San Antonio. As of two weeks ago, he hadn’t had an NFL carry. But with the injuries to Zamir White and Alexander Mattison, McCormick was called into service.
Over the past two weeks, McCormick has put up some impressive numbers. He has put up 97 yards on 17 carries. His 5.7 yards per carry is far better than any other Raiders back this season.
In his first appearance against the Broncos in week 12, he had 33 yards on five carries (6.6 ypc) and head coach Antonio Pierce said plainly that he earned more carries. So, he saw his carries jump to 12 last week against the Chiefs and still averaged 5.3 yards per carry.
Now in less than two weeks time, he goes from obscure practice squad back to the lead back with an NFL contract. It will be interesting to see what he can do the rest of the season and if that means he will be part of the Raiders plans moving forward.
