Louis Rankin signed with the Seattle Seahawks to join their practice squad, where he has a better shot of getting playing time than with the Raiders. The Raiders waived him when they re-signed Jonathan Holland to the 53-man roster, in hopes of re-signing Rankin to the practice squad. Tom Cable said that there was some disappointment that the Raiders couldn’t re-sign the running back because, “he’d be the next in line,” in the event of an injury.
In order to make room for the signing of Justin Miller, the Raiders put John Bowie on the injured reserve list. The former fourth round pick that was compensation for the trade of Randy Moss, has played a total of two games, been active for five, and has two career tackles.
Today, during punt drills, Justin Miller looked as if he’d never returned a punt before. He continued to misplay the punts and when he finally caught one, he ran towards the wrong end zone, losing about 20 yards in the process. Johnnie Lee Higgins was out at practice, but he wasn’t practicing due to his shoulder injury. Cable said it was to give him more rest.
Robert Gallery (OUT), Chaz Schilens (QUEST), Nick Miller (OUT) and Hiram Eugene (QUEST) were not at practice due to their injuries. Khalif Barnes was out at practice working with the offensive line and Michael Huff (ribs and quad) was also out there, but wasn’t practicing as a precautionary measure.
With Huff and Eugene ailing, Mike Mitchell will be getting more work in the secondary. Tom Cable referred to Mitchell as a ‘comer’ when talking about the progress Mitchell has made.
The Raiders may have lost Rankin, but they did re-sign Brandon Rodd to the practice squad. Rodd is a center/guard/tackle, but he’ll probably work as a guard in practice.
Interesting note: Cable has no comment about anything relating to Randy Hanson–especially the assertion that Hanson has been helping Cable’s defensive backs with game plans.
Check back later this evening for more news and notes from today’s practice!
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