ALAMEDA – Trayvon Mullen sat at his locker following Friday’s Raiders practice, poised and ready to play a football game. Never mind that he was strapped to stretcher five days prior, seemingly done for the season.
The Raiders rookie cornerback has bounced back well after taking a shot to the head and neck from teammate Curtis Riley in a 24-17 win over the Los Angeles Chargers that sent him to the hospital. He was not diagnosed with a concussion, though he has been dealing with a neck injury and an illness this week.
He has improved to the point that he was taken off the Raiders' injury report Friday and will play a must-win game against the host Denver Broncos on Sunday afternoon.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
“It is encouraging to be at this point, especially with how I felt right after it happened,” Mullen said. “I was having neck pains and things I’m not used to having. It was a scary situation, for sure. I’m happy that I have been improving and doing things that has helped me feel better and better.
“... Right away, I let my parents know that I was going to be all right. There are little things here and there since then, but I just continue to get healthy and I feel like I can go out and play.”
That last sentence was spoken with confidence. He feels comfortable starting and competing against the Broncos in a high-stakes affair the Raiders must win to keep slim playoff hopes alive.
[RELATED: Raiders' Williams remains confident after 'frustrating' season]
NFL
“That’s one of the reasons why I was trying to get healthy and make sure I was in a good spot to where I would be able to play,” Mullen said. “There’s a lot on the line with the position that we’re in. It’s important for me to be out there playing with my teammates. If this is the last game of the season or not, I just want to be out there with those guys. We’ll see where things go from here.”
Getting Mullen back so soon is a huge boon for the Raiders secondary. He keeps getting better with experience, especially since taking over as a full-time starter around midseason. He is tough and physical and never, even afraid of the moment. In other words, he’s a prototypical Raiders cornerback.
“I am taking confidence out there when I play,” Mullen said. “I have been taking good practices onto the field on game days, and that allows me to just play free.”
He was pretty tense and anxious back in the season opener, against Denver no less. He barely played but got torched by then-Bronco Emmanuel Sanders on a deep route, in an odd coincidence, after Gareon Conley got taken off the field in a stretcher. Conley -- now a Houston Texan, he reached out of Mullen after his incident -- was also okay and played the next week.
Mullen believes he has grown exponentially since that opening day.
“Right now, I feel like teams that play me know they’re going to have to bring it,” Mullen said. “At the beginning of the season, playing against Denver, I was fresh out there and maybe too aggressive and doing things out of the ordinary trying to make plays. I feel like I’m a lot better now, using the right techniques in the right situations to play fast and sound. If I do those things, I feel like I’m going to dominate.”