Bryant expected back this season
Receiver Martavis Bryant, who has missed the past two games because of a knee injury, is expected to return this season, Raiders offensive coordinator Greg Olson said Thursday.
Bryant suffered an injury to the posterior cruciate ligament in his knee Nov. 11 in the second half of a loss to the Chargers. The Raiders had not provided a timetable for Bryant’s recovery, though head coach Jon Gruden said Bryant was “knocking on my door” Monday.
Bryant has not practiced since his injury and remained out Thursday as the Raiders held an off-site walkthrough.
The Raiders traded a thirdround pick to the Steelers in April for Bryant, who in eight games has 19 catches for 266 yards and no touchdowns. More than one-third of his yards came in a Week 5 loss to the Chargers, when he had three catches for 91 yards.
“I think his attitude has been good,” Olson said. “It’s just the reliability aspect. He’s been injured, there’s been some different reasons why he’s had to miss parts of games. And so for us, it’s more about accountability, reliability for a player like that. We still think he’s got tremendous skill. It’s just more on a consistent basis.” New target: Olson said he got a promising first impression of tight end Darren Waller, whom the Raiders signed from Baltimore’s practice squad Tuesday.
Waller (6-foot-6, 255 pounds) was a sixth-round draft pick by the Ravens in 2015. He totaled 12 catches for 103 yards and two touchdowns in 18 games from 2015-16. He was also suspended for four games in 2016 and the entire 2017 season for violating the NFL’s policy on substance abuse. Waller had spent all of this season on the Ravens’ practice squad.
Olson said Waller worked with the Raiders’ offense in practice Wednesday and “did some good things on the show team.”
“We just wanted to get a feel for him more than anything,” Olson said. “We had a chance to look at what he had done in Baltimore — there was some game tape we had a chance to look at before we made the acquisition.
“Right now it’s getting a feel for what routes he runs best, how he is out in space. We did some things with him out in space like we do with Jared (Cook). How does he fit in a Jared Cook type of role? That’s what we’re looking at right now.” Moving indoors: The Raiders moved a practice to an off-site indoor facility for the third straight week Thursday. Olson said that was partly because of rainy conditions at the team’s facility in Alameda but also because prior off-site sessions — including those relocated because of poor air quality resulting from the Camp Fire in Butte County — were positive.
“We found they’ve been very productive, to be honest with you,” Olson said. “We’ve been able to get a lot of plays and work done in a controlled indoor environment, and with reducing the risk of possible injury on the field. … So we feel like we’ve gotten a tremendous amount of work done.”