Raiders Announce Rare Good News Before Cowboys Game
Getty
Las Vegas Raiders head coach Pete Carroll.
This has been a season from hell for the Las Vegas Raiders. Injuries, inconsistent play and poor coaching have contributed. Good news has been few and far between for this team in 2025.
One major injury that has contributed to the rough season is left tackle Kolton Miller. After four games, he suffered a serious ankle injury that led to him being sent to Injured Reserve. At first, it looked like he could be out for the year, but head coach Pete Carroll had an exciting update.
“Yeah, I do,” Carroll said when asked if he thinks Miller can return this season. “He’s getting around okay, and everything’s pointing towards that.”
Stone Forsythe has been OK as a replacement for Miller, but the longtime Raiders starter is one of the better left tackles in the NFL. The team’s offensive line has played very poorly this year, and Miller is the best player in the group.
Jackson Powers-Johnson is likely out for the season now, so the Raiders are down two starters. Getting Miller back would be helpful, but it remains to be seen what the timeline for his possible return could be. If the Raiders continue to lose, they might just hold Miller out for the rest of the season and let him get back to full strength for next year.
Raiders Hoping to Improve on Little Things
The Raiders are hoping to break a three-game losing streak against the Dallas Cowboys on Monday. Luckily, they’ve had a mini bye week between playing on Thursday in Week 10 and not having to play until Monday in Week 11.
The Raiders haven’t done much of anything right this season, and now they’re focusing on the details.
“The details are everything,” running back Ashton Jeanty said. “And you may not think it’s the play where you messed up, but more times than not, it is that play that can change the game in a bad way for you and your team. So every single detail, every single play matters.”
Quarterback Geno Smith echoed a similar sentiment to Jeanty.
“I really think that the lesson is that you’ve got to make the play when the play needs to be made,” Smith said. “And that goes for all of us, and myself more importantly. I’ve just got to make the plays and allow the guys to be themselves.”
Raiders Want Brock Bowers More Involved
The Raiders didn’t have Brock Bowers for much of the season due to an injury, but he’s easily their best offensive weapon. Despite that, they were inconsistent with how they used him in Week 10 against the Broncos.
Offensive coordinator Chip Kelly is hoping to get the ball to Bowers more often the rest of the way.
“We have to get him involved,” Kelly said on Friday. “He’s obviously our number one threat out there, and we’ve got to continue to get him involved in terms of what we do. Jacksonville and New England were a good example. We didn’t do a good job, I didn’t do a good job in the Denver game.”
Yankees Positioned to Poach Mets Star
If there was a game that embodied the New York Yankees' bullpen in 2025, it was that catastrophic collapse against the Miami Marlins after the trade deadline. That trio of David Bednar, Camilo Doval, and Jake Bird was touted as saviors, but even they couldn't keep it together, playing a big part in squandering leads of 6-0, 9-4, and even 12-10 in the 9th inning. At that point, it felt like the season was cursed, and it didn't matter who Aaron Boone would be bringing out of the bullpen. Prime Mariano Rivera may have had issues on that 2025 team, too.
This is why it isn't so surprising to hear the Yankees linked to Edwin Diaz, that fireballer with a pro-wrestling entrance, who has been a staple of the New York Mets since 2019. According to Ken Rosenthal, he could be a target.
Diaz to the Yankees?
"The Mets' crosstown rivals, the New York Yankees, are another club with potential interest," Rosenthal wrote in the Athletic. "The Yankees, too, have other priorities: a starting pitcher and at least one outfielder. While they are set with David Bednar as their closer, they also face the losses of two high-leverage relievers in Williams and Luke Weaver, and Díaz is proven in New York."
🎺🎺🎺
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 19, 2024
Edwin Diaz's full bullpen entrance 🔥 pic.twitter.com/riwklCrRI0
Relievers and running backs are the two most volatile positions in sports, and Diaz has proven to be an outlier. He has been a mark of consistency since entering the league in 2016. In six years with the Mets, Diaz has a 2.56 ERA in 328.1 innings. His 2022 season was so prolific that he garnered MVP and Cy Young votes.
Díaz is a two-pitch pitcher, and that fastball has been one of the best pitches in the sport for some time. Last year, opposing hitters hit .133 off of it with a .295 slugging percentage. He generated a 39.4% whiff rate with it as well. It's the type of swing-and-miss stuff that the Yankees have desperately been missing.
Buyer Beware
In Diaz's most recent contract, he signed a five-year deal worth $102 million. He opted out after this last season, voiding the final two years, hoping for a bigger payday in free agency. Rosenthal previously reported that Diaz is seeking similar numbers to the last one, and if the Yankees are going to foot the bill, are they really considering paying a 31-year-old reliever into his late thirties?
Diaz has indeed been a model of consistency, but paying a reliever the big bucks has hurt them in their most recent past. Look no further than Aroldis Chapman, who ended up becoming the worst-case scenario on all fronts in his final seasons in New York. Chapman gave up back-breaking home runs in back-to-back playoff series in 2019 and 2020, effectively ending the Yankees' season both times.
Throwback to one of our favorite playoff baseball moments 🤩
— Oakland Golden Grizzlies Baseball (@OaklandBSB) October 10, 2024
Oakland baseball alum Mike Brosseau takes Aroldis Chapman (a World Series champ) DEEP for the eventual game-winning drive 💪 pic.twitter.com/6l8whKqBv2
Chapman then lost the closer role in 2021 despite a hot start and was eventually usurped by Clay Holmes in 2022. In that final season, he walked out on the team before the postseason, skipping out on a mandatory workout.
By the end of his deal, the Yankees were stuck paying a guy who could no longer pitch in the ninth inning. His first deal wasn't so different than what Diaz may be getting. In 2017, the Yankees signed him to a five-year, $86 million contract, followed by a three-year, $48 million extension in 2020.
Of course, Chapman was his own special nightmare, and the only thing he was worse at than finding the strike zone as a Yankee was his ability to be accountable. Even if it's doubtful that Diaz would come with the same character concerns, there should still be a worry about paying an exorbitant fee for a reliever again.
It's less about Diaz making too much, because he has more than earned it, but the fact that Hal Steinbrenner is the owner, and he can give the directive to cut payroll at any time. Any free agent comes with risks, and somebody like Kyle Tucker can turn into a pumpkin, too, but they already lived the agony of a star reliever losing it and being stuck with him, and they should think hard before making that same mistake again.
