It’s been exactly a month since the first round of the 2026 NFL draft, and new Las Vegas Raiders cornerback Jermod McCoy’s injury has been a hot topic of discussion ever since. However, we still don’t really know what McCoy’s status is for this season and beyond. It’s been reported that the Tennessee product will likely need a second surgery that could threaten his career, but it seems like the entire situation is still very much up in the air.
The ambiguity is what caused McCoy, who was widely considered
a top-15 talent heading into last month’s draft, to fall to the fourth round and into the Raiders’ laps. Granted, Las Vegas did have to move up one spot to get him, and that was because the former Volunteer wasn’t going to be on the board much longer, according to the California Post’s Vincent Bonsignore, who also shed some light on the injury situation.
“I’ve talked to a couple of general managers around the league who shared what their intel was on [McCoy], and by the way, he was not lasting very much longer in the fourth round. People were ready to pounce,” Bonsignore said while guest hosting on Raider Nation Radio’s “JT the Brick”.
“They took the red flag off of him by that point in the draft across the league. So the Raiders did a good job of beating everybody to the punch and the way it’s been explained to me is it’s not a ‘right now’ issue. It’s a potentially long-range issue, the longevity of it. And Todd Gurley was a name that was brought up. He had suffered that devastating knee injury at Georgia, but he was recovered from it, was fantastic for a period of time in the NFL.”
“But then the longevity issue came into play [for Gurley]. People are looking for all these signs about the knee. Is it good? Is he good to go? It’s not that. It’s the longevity issue.”
Gurley tore his ACL in mid-November of his last College Football season. Unlike McCoy, the injury didn’t impact the running back’s draft status, as he was still taken 10th overall by the then-St. Louis Rams. Gurley had to sit out the first two games of his rookie season but bounced back quickly, winning Offensive Rookie of the Year, making three All-Pro teams in four years and becoming the 2017 NFL Offensive Player of the Year.
However, the former Bulldog’s injury in college caused him to suffer from severe inflammation and arthritis in the knee. That led to the Rams releasing Gurley two years after signing him to a record-breaking contract extension, and him spending one season with the Atlanta Falcons before his career ended after just six seasons and at just 26 years old.
Of course, Bonsignore is not necessarily making a one-for-one comparison, and every situation is different when it comes to medicals. But if McCoy does follow the same path as Gurley, the Raiders would be looking at getting three to four years of really high play from the cornerback before the long-term knee issues start to kick in.
In Other Raiders’ Links:
- Klint Kubiak wants big workload for Ashton Jeanty: “We want to put a lot of pressure on Ashton,” Kubiak said, via S&BP. “…We think we should continue to challenge Ashton and get more out of him.”
- Brandon Cleveland film breakdown: Come see what the seventh-round pick can bring to the table, especially since he’s in a unique position to battle for a starting spot.
- Emmitt Smith shades Jeanty, Raiders: “Just like kryptonite is Superman’s weakness, a poor offensive line can be a running back’s weakness, especially if you have jail breaks,” Smith told Heavy Sports’ Austin Boyd. “You talk about Ashton Jeanty coming out of college and doing the things that he did in college, but he went to the Raiders. He went to the Raiders.”
- Proposed Maxx Crosby trade: Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport suggested that the Raiders trade Crosby to the Bears for a 2027 first-round and 2028 second-round pick.
