Every year since Jakorian Bennett was drafted, he has found himself behind in the depth chart, having to work his way up. It’s no different this offseason. Despite coming off a season in which he looked like a bonafide starter before injury ended it prematurely, he has been running with the twos behind newcomers Eric Stokes and rookie Darius Porter.
It was a shoulder injury that ended Bennett’s 2024 season, and apparently it was one that had been bothering him for a very long time. And finally reached the point he couldn’t play through it and causing him to surgically repair it.
“It feels amazing, man. I haven’t had both my shoulders since college,” said Bennett. “I’d go out there during games, knowing my shoulder was going to pop out. Probably last season my shoulder popped out like five times. Because I had a torn labrum, you know? A lot of people don’t know that but I was just thugging it out. They’d put it back in and I’d go back in or whatever, but it feels good to have it back right. Just time to take that next step.”
His recovery from the surgery is part of why he is back to having to work his way up the depth chart. Which is a position he’s used to at this point.
“Yeah, for sure. But I feel like there’s no other way that you’d want it,” Bennett said of earning his spot. “You don’t want nobody just give you anything. I’m here to work and I just got to show the coaches who I am, who I know I can be and just go out there and continue to compete.”
Jakorian has won these battles before. He had to come back from being benched as a fourth round rookie to showing himself to be a solid starter last season. And, as we are learning now, he was doing all this with a bum shoulder. So, having him healthy and battling for the job again is a good situation to be in for the Raiders.
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