Raiders: Why is Brandon Parker still on the 53-man roster?

Brandon Parker continues to occupy a roster spot on the Las Vegas Raiders, but why?

The Las Vegas Raiders dealt with some pretty awful injury luck at the offensive tackle position last Sunday following injuries to both Trent Brown and Sam Young.

First, it was the massive Brown who went down with a calf injury after just three offensive snaps. For a player who has dealt with his fair share of injury concerns throughout his career, it was certainly a major blow.

The Raiders then turned to veteran backup Sam Young to fill in for the injured Brown. Unfortunately, just a few series later, Young went down with an injury of his own, a groin issue, that knocked him out of the game.

The only other backup tackle on the roster was Brandon Parker, but the Raiders opted not to dress him on Sunday. That meant that backup guard Denzelle Good was suddenly thrust into the starting lineup at a position he hadn’t played in years.

Perhaps even more surprising, however, was the fact that he actually managed to fare pretty well. Good more than held his own and played better than anyone could have expected. In fact, many dubbed him the unsung hero of the Raiders’ 34-30 Week 1 victory over the Carolina Panthers.

Unfortunately, both Brown and Young aren’t expected to play in the team’s Week 2 Las Vegas opener against the New Orleans Saints this Monday night.

Logic would dictate that the Raiders would opt to play their next backup tackle who didn’t dress last week in place of the injured Brown and Young. Instead, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

With Brown and Young likely to be sidelined this coming Monday, the Raiders are reportedly expected to start Good at right tackle, despite the fact that he hadn’t practiced/played at the position in multiple years prior to this past week.

With this in mind, why is Brandon Parker still on the Raiders’ roster?

This begs the question, why exactly is Brandon Parker on the roster then?

He isn’t the top backup offensive tackle and he isn’t even the backup backup offensive tackle. Instead, the Raiders would rather have their backup guard play out of position than play Parker at his natural position.

What does that say about Parker’s status in the organization? The team clearly doesn’t trust him to play and now entering his third NFL season, the time for development is running out.

So why he is taking up a roster spot? He’s failed as a starter and now the team doesn’t;t even trust him to be the backup’s backup. Perhaps the Raiders are just holding on to the former third-round pick’s draft status.

Whatever the reason, it’s certainly a puzzling decision.