Raiders coach Tom Cable on Monday wasn’t ruling out the possibility that injured cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha will be able to play Sunday. Nor was he ruling out the possibility of Randy Moss becoming a Raider again.
An MRI exam performed on Asomugha’s right ankle revealed a sprain, but Cable said the team won’t know the severity until Wednesday.
“We’re doing all the tests and everything so we know exactly what’s going on,” Cable said. “It just appears to be an ankle sprain. How long that means “… We won’t know here for about 48 hours.”
Asomugha suffered the injury early in the fourth quarter Sunday when he stepped on the right foot of
Seattle Seahawks receiver Golden Tate as they battled for a deep pass during the Raiders’ 33-3 victory.
Asomugha was helped off the field by medical personnel and has been unavailable for comment.
The resurgent Raiders (4-4) have other injury concerns heading into their showdown with the AFC West-leading
Kansas City Chiefs (5-2) on Sunday. Wide receiver Louis Murphy probably will miss his second consecutive game as he continues to recover from a bruised chest, and tight end Zach Miller was on crutches after aggravating an injury to his right arch, though Cable said the crutches were precautionary.
Coincidentally, as two of the Raiders’ best pass-catchers are hobbled, one of the best ever is about to be placed on the waiver wire.
Moss reportedly was in the process of being waived by the
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Minnesota Vikings on Monday. Though his name was not on the league’s official waiver wire, his agent, Joel Segal, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that it is “merely a technical thing” before Moss is officially waived.
Teams have 24 hours from the time a player is waived to place a claim. The team with the worst record that places a claim gets the rights to that player.
Cable said the Raiders “have an interest in anyone we think can help us,” but, he added, “It hasn’t been a discussion yet, and then the fact that it just happened, and there’s so much that has to go on.”
When asked if placing a claim on Moss was a distinct possibility, Cable said: “Well, I wouldn’t (rule it out). I don’t think you ever do if you think it can make your team better.”
Moss played for the Raiders in 2005-06. He was traded before the 2007 season to the
New England Patriots for a fourth-round draft pick, which turned out to be cornerback John Bowie.
Managing general partner Al Davis has blamed former Raiders coaches Norv Turner and Art Shell for the way Moss failed to produce the kind of results with Oakland the way that he did for the Vikings in his first stint there and for the Patriots.
“Randy Moss was great here for us,” Davis said Sept. 12, 2009. “We couldn’t satisfy Randy. That was our fault. He’s a truly great player. The idea when you get a great player is to make him happy and satisfy him.”
Moss has $3.38 million left on the $6.4 million he is due this season.
Miller was unavailable for comment Monday, though Cable said the tight end isn’t any worse than he was before the Seahawks game.
Miller leads the Raiders in receptions (34), receiving yards (461) and receiving touchdowns (four). But he caught only one pass for 8 yards against the Seahawks, missing part of the game so he could get treated in the locker room and on the sideline.
Brandon Myers is the only other tight end on Oakland’s 53-man roster.
Murphy said he is making progress from the bruised chest he suffered against the Denver Broncos on Oct. 24. However, he probably won’t play Sunday, Cable said.
Murphy collided with fullback Marcel Reece on a pass play while getting drilled in the back by cornerback Perrish Cox.
Murphy said he coughed up blood for a short spell as a result of the play. That prompted team doctors to sit him out Sunday against the Seahawks.
“They just held me out, even though I felt fine and my chest felt fine,” Murphy said. “But with me coughing up blood and having internal bleeding, they didn’t want to take any chances with that.”
Murphy leads all Raiders wide receivers with 21 receptions for 337 yards and one touchdown.
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