Raiders Clips
Bills safety Sam Franklin will be available for this Sunday’s game against the Ravens after making a successful appeal of a one-game suspension.
Franklin was suspended for spitting at Raiders right tackle DJ Glaze late in a Week 6 win, but the penalty was reduced to a $14,926 fine after an appeal last week. That change has not changed Glaze’s account of what happened.
Glaze said on Wednesday that Franklin “was, like, face to face, and he just let it rip,” but believes the suspension was overturned because there was not the same kind of clear evidence that led to Franklin’s teammate C.J. Gardner-Johnson’s ejection and suspension for spitting at Glaze’s teammate Brock Bowers.
“That’s why I feel like it kind of got taken away. . . . He did,” Glaze said, via TheAthletic.com. “He said he didn’t. You know, he did. But it is what it is at this point. It happened. And the NFL did what they did about it.”
Franklin has denied the allegation, which was lodged by the Raiders and which Bills head coach Joe Brady dismissed as “hearsay” during his own press conference on Wednesday.
Jon Gruden asked for it, and Jon Gruden definitely is getting it.
After a legal odyssey that somehow staved off the NFL’s obsession to force his five-year-old lawsuit into arbitration controlled by the league, Gruden won the ability to have his claims litigated in open court. Now that the litigation is moving forward, Gruden is drowning in the obligations of the discovery process.
In August, the presiding judge publicly criticized Gruden and his lawyers for “lack of compliance with the rules.” More recently, it got worse for Gruden.
A lot worse.
Michael McCann of Sportico has obtained a transcript of a recent hearing regarding the ongoing efforts of the NFL to secure information to which the league is entitled, under the so-called rules of civil procedure. And the transcript sends an unmistakable message: Judge Joe Hardy seems to suspect that Gruden could be actively hiding evidence that could harm his case.
The current focal point is a phantom BlackBerry device. It existed, and now it doesn’t.
“So did your client lie to you about a BlackBerry?” Judge Hardy said at one point during the hearing.
“It’s not a lie, Your Honor, it’s a mistake,” attorney Adam Hosmer-Henner responded. “And what [Gruden] told me is that he had an old BlackBerry that he couldn’t turn on.”
The judge apparently senses that Gruden’s side is playing a shell game with the BlackBerry device in question.
“Did anybody from your office ever check to see if there was an actual BlackBerry?” Judge Hardy asked Hosmer-Henner.
“Mr. Gruden resides in Florida,” Hosmer-Henner said. “We did not send an individual to rummage around his house to look for a BlackBerry. And what we did do is promptly respond to interrogatory responses providing all this information. With regard to the forensic collection, Mr. Gruden was at an event at the White House last week. He flew back that night in order to allow the forensic examiners selected by the NFL to go through his electronic devices and —"
“So let me interject there, too, because if you can’t tell, this process is frustrating,” Judge Hardy said. “And you, on behalf of your client, keep saying things that seem to indicate, well, Mr. Gruden is super important and super special. And, you know, we should accommodate his schedule. For example, you just mentioned, well, he was at an event at the White House.”
At one point during the hearing, Judge Hardy said this: “We have no reason to trust representations by Mr. Gruden.”
Judge Hardy, per McCann, ordered Gruden to compensate the league for a portion of the attorneys’ fees incurred in connection with the ongoing effort to force him to comply with the rules. That’s an unusual development in any civil case, and it underscores Judge Hardy’s growing frustration with Gruden and his lawyers.
Here’s why it’s a major problem for Gruden. The same judge who has come to the conclusion that the “representations by Mr. Gruden” should not be trusted will be making many key decisions about the merits of Gruden’s case. If it proceeds to trial, Gruden will testify under the supervision of Judge Hardy.
And Gruden, who has a strong will, a quick temper, and a profane vocabulary, will be scrutinized very carefully by a judge who has already decided that he has “no reason to trust representations by Mr. Gruden.”
So, no, it’s not going well for Gruden. And it’s his own fault. At best, he has failed to honor the duty to comply with the rules of the legal process he initiated. At worst — and as the judge undoubtedly suspects — Gruden possibly is trying to hide a device that may contain communications that could hurt, if not kill, his entire case.
On the surface, the idea that someone connected to the NFL weaponized supposedly confidential emails from an unrelated investigation to force Gruden out of his head-coaching job with the Raiders during the 2021 season is troubling. It becomes impossible for Gruden (who is already operating at a disadvantage due to the objectively problematic contents of the emails that were leaked) to prove a violation of applicable legal principles if he creates the impression that he’s not cooperating with the process.
Or, even worse, if he is deliberately and actively trying to conceal other emails and/or text messages.
At this point, it becomes critical for Gruden to do anything and everything he can to regain the trust of the judge. Without that, it’s just a matter of time before Gruden loses his case — and possibly ends up being required to reimburse the NFL for millions of dollars in fees and expenses incurred in defending itself against a case that Gruden seems to not be taking as seriously as he should.
Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty is having a terrible year, but he thinks he can turn that around on Sunday against the Jets.
Jeanty said in the Raiders’ locker room on Wednesday that he thinks there are players on the Jets’ defense who don’t want to tackle him, and that excites him when he sees it on tape.
“I think we can definitely get the run game going,” Jeanty said when asked about the Jets’ defense. “Get back on track and really get after these guys. A couple guys out there that don’t really want to tackle, but I’m not going to say names.”
The Raiders started the season 3-0 but are now 3-4. Jeanty said that during this losing streak, he and his teammates are doing a good job of challenging each other to improve without playing the blame game.
“I think the main thing is we’ve just to to stick together. You lose games, everybody starts questioning things,” Jeanty said. “Most importantly, not pointing fingers. Everybody has to work together. It’s a team sport.”
Jeanty is averaging just 3.1 yards per carry this season, and that needs to improve in a hurry. He believes it can improve, against a Jets defense that allowed Dolphins running back Ollie Gordon to rush for 103 yards and a touchdown last week. If it doesn’t improve against a Jets defense that doesn’t want to tackle, it may be time to ask bigger questions about why Jeanty can’t get going.
The Titans claimed defensive tackle Jonah Laulu off waivers, according to Jordan Schultz of the Schultz Report.
Laulu, 26, was a healthy scratch on Sunday.
In five games this season, he has five tackles, three quarterback hits and half a sack. Laulu has played 110 defensive snaps and 24 on special teams.
The Colts selected him in the seventh round in 2024, but the Raiders claimed him off waivers out of the preseason that year.
He set the franchise record for most tackles (86) for a defensive lineman over the first two seasons.
Laulu totaled 91 tackles, 5.5 sacks, eight passes defensed and 12 quarterback hits in 39 games with the Raiders.
The Raiders have one of their offensive contributors back.
Las Vegas announced on Tuesday that receiver Dont’e Thornton has been activated to the 53-man roster off injured reserve.
Thornton has been sidelined by a hamstring injury suffered during training camp.
A fourth-round pick in the 2025 draft, Thornton caught 10 passes for 135 yards in 15 games as a rookie.
Las Vegas waived defensive tackle Jonah Laulu from its active roster to make room for Thornton. Laulu’s roster move was reported earlier on Tuesday.
Additionally, the Raiders have released receiver Jamari Thrash from its practice squad.
The Raiders are moving on from one of their young defensive linemen.
Per Jordan Schultz of The Schultz Report, Las Vegas is waiving Jonah Laulu.
Laulu, 26, joined the Raiders when he was claimed off waivers in 2024. He was a Colts seventh-round pick that year who did not make the initial 53-man roster.
He appeared in all 17 games for Las Vegas as a rookie and all 17 games for the team last season, starting 15 of them.
But this season, he had been on the field for just 32 percent of the team’s defensive snaps in five games. He was then a healthy scratch for Sunday’s loss to the Rams.
Laulu has registered 5.5 career sacks with 11 tackles for loss and 12 QB hits. He had 4.0 sacks last season.
Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty has not been the player they thought they were getting when they selected him with the sixth overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft.
After Sunday’s loss to the Rams, in which Jeanty ran for just 15 yards on eight carries, Jeanty has a total of 106 carries for 328 yards this season, an average of just 3.1 yards per carry. No runner in the league who’s getting the ball as much as Jeanty has such a low average.
Jeanty’s inability to make big plays running the ball can’t just be blamed on the offense or his blocking, as his backup, rookie fourth-round pick Mike Washington, is averaging a solid 4.9 yards per carry this season.
A low yards-per-carry average could be excused if Jeanty were getting tough gains in short-yardage situations, but he’s not doing that, either. He has only 15 rushing first downs; every other running back with at least 90 carries this season has more rushing first downs than Jeanty. And Jeanty has just one rushing touchdown.
If there’s a bright side, it’s that Jeanty has made plays catching the ball. In Sunday’s loss he caught all eight of the passes thrown to him, for 61 yards and a touchdown. For the season, Jeanty has 34 catches for 312 yards and three receiving touchdowns.
Jeanty said after Sunday’s game that he’s not discouraged.
“It’s a long season, we’ve got a lot of football left, so regardless of what it looks like, we’ve got to keep working, keep getting better, no matter what it looks like,” Jeanty said.
So far, what it looks like is a young running back falling well short of expectations.
The Raiders are getting healthier at receiver.
Las Vegas officially designated Jack Bech to return to practice from injured reserve on Monday, after head coach Klint Kubiak said in his press conference that the move was expected for this week.
Bech has been out with a broken forearm suffered in the Week 3 victory over the Saints.
Bech now has 21 days to practice before he must be added to the 53-man roster.
In his second season, Bech caught five passes for 48 yards with a touchdown before suffering the injury.
As a rookie in 2025, Bech caught 20 passes for 224 yards.
There won’t be a quarterback change in Las Vegas this week.
Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak opened his Monday press conference by saying that Kirk Cousins will be the team’s starter for their Week 8 game against the Jets. The announcement came a day after Kubiak said the team is “thinking about everything to fix our problems” when asked about turning to rookie Fernando Mendoza.
“There is no controversy there,” Kubiak said. “He’s playing at a very high level. He’s gotta continue to do that for us to win and we gotta keep helping all the areas around him. Excited for him to go play against the Jets.”
Kubiak said that Mendoza is “going to play at some point,” but reiterated that Cousins is playing well and that the Raiders are “in the hunt” with a 3-4 record on the season.
Cousins was 26-of-44 for 295 yards and two touchdowns in Sunday’s 35-21 loss to the Rams, but did much of his damage after the Raiders fell behind 28-3 in the first half of the game.
The 49ers’ bye week was extended by 20 minutes on Monday.
The team announced that the start time for their Week 9 home game against the Raiders will now kick off at 4:25 p.m. ET. The game was originally set to get underway at 4:05 p.m.
In addition to changing time slots, the game will now be on Fox rather than CBS.
Fox is also set to carry the Packers-Patriots game in New England and the Cardinals-Seahawks game in Seattle during that window. The only 4:05 p.m. ET game on CBS is now the Texans’ trip to Los Angeles to face the Chargers.
