Did the Raiders get one of the steals of the draft in Tennessee cornerback Jermod McCoy?
That’s one of the questions being asked in the wake of the 2026 draft, and McCoy’s success at the NFL level is largely going to come down to how his surgically repaired knee responds in the months ahead.
McCoy had a “knee plug” performed on his knee 15 months ago, and it was a procedure that not many fans are familiar with. Unlike an ACL or simple meniscus repair, a knee plug involves replacing bone and a certain amount of cartilage in the affected knee.
There isn’t a lot of precent for injuries similar to McCoy’s (compared to other knee injuries), and there are a lot of different opinions on how his knee will respond going forward. More than half of the teams polled by ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler removed McCoy from their draft board this year, but according to at least one doctor, there is some reason for optimism based on how the Raiders are approaching McCoy’s knee.
Dr. Lanny Johnson is one the world’s most respected orthopedic doctors, and he spoke this week to Hondo Carpenter on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast.
First, Dr. Johnson explained the risk involved in taking a player with a degenerative knee, which is what some have reported McCoy might be dealing with now or in the future…
“[The matter of degeneration] means the injury to his gliding surface of his knee, forget the ACL, because the ACL repairs usually work out good for pro athlete. So, there was a severe injury to the gliding surface of his knee. I’ll assume it was the inner aspect of the femur or the femoral condyle. I don’t know. I assume that because that’s the most common. And the result of that injury can be progressive arthritis or degenerative arthritis, which would be disabling.”
Is there precedent for a knee injury like McCoy’s in the NFL?
“It depends on the size of the injury and the diameter of the plug. So, a one-centimeter plug is approximately a half an inch. Any of those that are in the small areas or say a half an inch or less have an excellent prognosis and the literature would, I don’t have any knowledge of any individual player, but the literature would say that that patient has a very good prognosis for let’s say 10 to 15 years, providing there’s no other arthritis in the knee or providing in his case that ACL is stable, providing that he rehabilitates well.
But just on the basis of that lesion with a, and I don’t know whether he had a plug taken from his own bone put there or one taken from a cadaver bone. The ones from your own bone usually have a little better prognosis than one taken from a cadaver bone. But once taken from a cadaver bone are very successful.”
Is it a good sign that McCoy is back on the field and participating in mini camp?
“Well, first of all, we’re back to a patient management problem, assessing this injury and view of this patient. This patient has every motivation to do really well, and the NFL. He believes that he could have been a higher choice because of his ability. He has a huge desire to perform. I think on that basis, he will do well. If in fact his repair, they have evidence by MRI or something else, that the repair of the articular surface was good. There was no other degen of arthritis. The knee is stable from the anterior cruciate. He has an excellent prognosis and was probably a steal for the Raiders.”
Would there be benefits to the Raiders sitting McCoy for a year?
“I don’t know. We’re talking about a specific person and a condition I don’t know. But from what you’ve told me, I don’t think there’s anything that they are worrying about if they’re going to play him now because they must have some evidence that the repair was good, the knee is stable, and there’s no other arthritis, no existing torn meniscus with it. If he has an excellent prognosis, no harm in having him and he’s really rehabilitated well over a year, I guess he probably is ready to play.”
What are others saying about McCoy’s knee?
The more information that comes out about Jermod McCoy’s knee, the more it sounds like the Raiders are going to get a healthy cornerback – at least for his first NFL season.
The issue, it seems, could be down the road, and whatever information came out on McCoy’s knee in the last few weeks certainly did some damage to his stock in the draft.
Bleacher Report’s James Palmer talked about McCoy’s knee last week and he believes McCoy will be able to start the season at close to full strength…
“He had the massive knee injury. That’s where all this comes from. In 2024, he matched up against Jeremiah Smith, who is a generational talent at the wide receiver position, and everyone though he did an outstanding job. But he had the big knee injury, and everybody wanted to see how he came back from that. At his pro day he performed very well. He ran in the 4.3s, 38-inch vert, 10-foot 7-inch broad jump. He tested really well and he’ll be fine coming right out of the gate.
“The Raiders took him in the fourth round. The medical is why this man fell. It had nothing to do with his character. Nothing to do with anything other than teams being suspect of his medical. With the medical it’s this. The ACL is fine. It’s intact. He will be playing completely fine for the Raiders. But the longevity of his career is where teams are very, very concerned. When I started making calls around the league, everybody said ‘I don’t know if he’s in the first round anymore.’ I don’t know if anybody predicted the fall to the fourth, but he started slipping out of the first probably a week or less from the start of the draft.”
He has a cartilage defect in his knee. Surgeons used a bone plug in his knee to treat that defect and some of the teams around the league believe that bone plug is going to need to be replaced which will also being another lengthy recovery. So the length of his career and this cartilage issue is why he fell in the draft.”
x: @raidersbeat
His surgery could have been a big success ,we don’t know these other people are just speculating about what they think is going on with his knee, and I say it’s going to be just fine go Raiders!
Raider Nation has never cared what other people think. We don’t care what other teams think or what some analysts may think. The Raiders would not have drafted him if they didn’t think he was worth the risk. If they are wrong it was their decision make. Every year, every team every writer, and every analyst makes mistakes concerning the draft.