Safety Tyvon Branch placed on injured reserve, DT Lumpkin signed

Originally published on Silver & Black Report on Dec. 14, 2013


The Raiders announced on Saturday that they have placed injured safety Tyvon Branch on the injured reserve, ending his season with just three games remaining in the season.

Branch went out with an ankle/leg injury in week two and has not returned since and was previously listed as "doubtful" on the injury report for this week's match-up against the Kansas City Chiefs. Branch will finish his sixth NFL season (all with the Raiders) with five tackles and one sack in two games played.

With fellow safety Usama Young on the injured reserve as well, it looks like it will be Brandian Ross getting starts at strong safety for the rest of the season.

The Raiders also announced that they have signed defensive tackle Ricky Lumpkin to fill the empty roster spot.

Lumpkin was originally signed to the Raiders practice squad on Nov. 20 after being waived by the Arizona Cardinals in September. The 6-foot-4, 306-pound defensive tackle played 44 games at the University of Kentucky and recorded 82 tackles, three sacks, 12 tackles for a loss and one fumble recovery. He spent the majority of the last two seasons on the Cardinals' practice squad.