Malcolm Koonce injury update: Raiders share bad news on stud edge rusher

The Las Vegas Raiders were thrown a curveball on Thursday when defensive end Malcolm Koonce was added to the injury report with a knee issue that presumably occurred during practice.

On Friday, head coach Antonio Pierce revealed that Koonce will not suit up against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday. Unfortunately, he didn't provide more details beyond that, so we don't know the severity of Koonce's injury.

Pierce added that he's looking for guys like 2023 first-round pick Tyree Wilson and Janarius Robinson to step up in Koonce's absence. Those will be huge shoes to fill, though, as Koonce had a career-best eight sacks last season.

"He'll be out," Pierce said of Koonce . "When one guy's out, next-man-up mentality. Tyree Wilson, (Janarius Robinson), those guys have had a lot of opportunities to play and we expect them to step up and play well."

The fact that Pierce didn't provide anymore details isn't a great sign. After all, he'll usually share positive news about a player if there is any. Hopefully we're just reading too much into that.

The spotlight will be extra bright on Wilson, who had a disappointing rookie season after the Raiders took him with the No. 7 overall pick. The Texas Tech product did manage to finish the season on a somewhat high note, although he actually did his best work inside rather than off the edge.

A former fourth-round pick of the Minnesota Vikings in 2021, Robinson has just six games under his belt, all of which came in 2023 with the Raiders. He had one sack.

The Raiders and Chargers will kick off from SoFi Stadium on Sunday at 1:05 p.m PT.