The Raiders placed kicker Mike Nugent on injured reserve, per a team announcement. Nugent will be replaced by Matt McCrane, who was signed on Tuesday.
Nugent was off to a strong start this year, but a hip injury on Sunday will likely cost him the season. In three games, Nugent nailed all six of his field goal tries and went 4-of-5 on PATs.
Enter McCrane, who has never attempted a regular season kick, though he did perform well in a limited sample with the Cardinals in the preseason. The Kansas State product will make his debut against the Browns on Sunday as the Raiders search for their first W of the season.
After previously losing long snapper Andrew DePaola to a torn ACL, the Raiders are now lacking experience when it comes to their specialists. Jon Gruden tends to favor veteran savvy, but he’ll just have to hope for the best when it comes to the third facet of the game.