The Las Vegas Raiders made a pair of moves in the wake of their 22-20 win over the Houston Texans last week, as they’ve released receiver Noah Brown and placed cornerback Chigozie Anusiem on season-ending injured reserve over the weekend, according to a pair of reports one from Ben Levine of ProFootballRumors.com and another from Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk.
Letting Brown go is the more important move, as he was recently signed by the Raiders to see if he could stay healthy and provide a veteran presence for a team with a young group that’s struggling to find its way.
It’s safe to say the move didn’t work, as coach Klint Kubiak called out the receivers specifically after the loss, saying they needed to get better in a hurry. The receivers dropped a pair of throws in the first career start of quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
Brown’s best years happened with the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans in 2022 and 2023, respectively. He broke out with 43 catches for the Cowboys, then upped his yards per catch number significantly with the Texans as he hauled in 33 passes for 567 yards and two touchdowns.
Brown didn’t get much of a chance with the Raiders, and it’s unclear what Kubiak has in mind to improve the performance of the receivers at this point. It’s an undistinguished group that underperformed last year, and it looks like that could easily happen again, despite the addition of free agent receiver Jailen Nalor of the Minnesota Vikings, with Nailor having one of the two drops against Houstaon last week.
The Raiders released Brown early to give him a chance to catch on with another team, and at this point it looks like Kubiak will be scouring the cut lists of other teams to try to find better options and more depth.
The Raiders intend to feature tight end Brock Bowers in the offense, and Michael Mayer is also a reliable option, but neither will have much luck if the Raiders can’t find receivers to open up the middle of the field and be reliable when they’re targed.
Anusiem injured his knee in the third quarter of the team’s 22-20 win over the Houston Texans last Thursday. The injury happened on the punt team when he was dragged down from behind.
The cornerback was primarily a special teamer, as he played 54 snaps in that role last year after the Raiders signed him to the active roster in Week 15, per Williams.
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