Raiders kicker Sebastian Janikowski injured his groin while making a tackle on Saturday night against the Lions. Coach Dennis Allen said Sunday that the injury isn’t expected to keep Janikowski from swinging his leg two weeks from tonight, when the Raiders host the Chargers to cap Week One.
“That would be my assumption after seeing him today,” Allen said, via Paul Gutierrez of CSNBayArea.com. “I don’t really anticipate that being anything that really carries over into the regular season.”
Allen added that Janikowski may kick on Thursday night in the preseason finale.
“He’s got basically a sore groin,” Allen added. “He’s a little tight but doesn’t seem to be any pull or defect in the muscle or anything like that, so I don’t anticipate it being a big deal.”
Backup Eddy Carmona banged a 56-yard field goal and put a kickoff out of the end zone in place of Janikowski, which means it may be smart for the Raiders to inflict a groin injury or worse on the undrafted rookie from Harding and then stash him on injured reserve in advance of a showdown next preseason with the soon-to-be 35-year-old Janikowski.