West Notes: Raiders, Garnett, Broncos

Donald Penn appears to be dug in on his holdout from Raiders camp. The Pro Bowl left tackle has scheduled some workouts in St. Louis with Hall of Fame tackle Orlando Pace, Steve Wyche of NFL.com reports, perhaps an indication Penn doesn’t expect to report to Napa, Calif., anytime soon. Penn spent recent time working out with another Rams Hall of Fame tackle in Jackie Slater but did so in southern California. The 34-year-old left tackle wants to be paid top-10 money at his position and has been absent from Raiders camp for over a week. Reggie McKenzie refused to address his left tackle’s contract publicly, but Oakland is now working with two new tackle starters — Marshall Newhouse and Vadal Alexander — after cutting Austin Howard and observing Penn hold out. The 11th-year player has never missed a regular-season game but will continue to push for more money. Penn signed a two-year, $14MM deal — one that will pay him $5.8MM in base salary this season — last year.

Here’s more from Oakland and other Western-division camps.

  • Malcolm Smith‘s pectoral injury dealt a significant blow to the 49ers defense, but their offense won’t have the services of Joshua Garnett for a while. The second-year guard is expected to miss a “period of time” because of a knee injury Kyle Shanahan said could require surgery. Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com reports the 2016 first-round guard is not believed to have damaged his ACL, but his chances of competing for a starting job appear to be over during camp. Brandon Fusco and Zane Beadles are now working as San Francisco’s first-team guards. Shanahan described the uncertainty around Garnett by saying he “hoped” the interior lineman could help the team this season, via Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle (on Twitter).
  • Raiders backup safety Keith McGill suffered a Jones fracture in his right foot Saturday and will have surgery, Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. McGill’s status for Week 1 is uncertain, but he will miss the rest of training camp, Gehlken writes. A former cornerback, McGill is entering his fourth season and is a consistent special teams presence for Oakland. He and Obi Melifonwu are expected to be the second-string safeties.
  • Broncos camp still has a ways to go, but Vance Joseph has identified his punt returner already. Five-foot-7 Isaiah McKenzie won the job, the first-year coach said, via Jeff Legwold of ESPN.com. Although Joseph views McKenzie as too small for kick-return responsibilities, the Broncos drafted him with a punt-return role in mind. They remain hopeful he can have an impact on offense as well. McKenzie returned five punts for touchdowns during three seasons at Georgia.
  • The Cardinals lost running back and return man T.J. Logan to a dislocated wrist. The rookie will be placed on IR.
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