Chiefs vs. Raiders: Gareon Conley, Marshall Newhouse out for Oakland

The Oakland Raiders will be missing a few key players as inactives on Thursday when they face the Kansas City Chiefs in primetime.

The Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs are both hurting a bit when it comes to injuries. For the Raiders, there are a couple of players who will miss Thursday’s game in primetime who will likely affect the approach of the Chiefs: offensive tackle Marshall Newhouse and cornerback Gareon Conley.

First, here’s a list of the Raiders inactives.

The loss of Conley on the day for sure puts more pressure on an already thin secondary. The Raiders first round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft hasn’t been on the field much this year at all and hasn’t played a single snap since Week 3, but the Raiders are certainly looking forward to the moment when he’s ready to suit up again. It could be any week, but apparently the short week didn’t give him enough time to get ready for the Chiefs.

Instead of Conley, the Raiders will have to hope that T.J. Carrie and David Amerson can carry the load on the outside to cover Tyreek Hill and DeMarcus Robinson. Sean Smith should also be relied upon as a veteran, although the Raiders chose to sit him last week despite being healthy and ready to play. Perhaps it was a show from coach Jack Del Rio to inspire Smith to play better or be sharper mentally in the hopes he’d turn it around against his former team, the Chiefs.

The loss of Newhouse will certainly have the Chiefs pass rush licking their lips at the thought of getting to Derek Carr. Justin Houston and Dee Ford will do their best to take advantage of the shift along the Raiders offensive line, just like Raiders defenders are likely to key in on Cam Erving and Zach Fulton starting in place of Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and Mitch Morse, respectively.