PRO FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : RAIDERS : Reserves to Get Plenty of Playing Time

To help ensure that the Raider starters are fit for their season opener at San Francisco, Coach Art Shell plans to give a great deal of playing time to reserves against Houston on Saturday in their final exhibition game.

Shell said Wednesday he is pleased with the team’s progress and does not want to risk the chance of injury to a starter on the artificial turf of the Astrodome.

“We’ll get our starters enough work, but our backups will get a lot more work,” Shell said. “We’re in fairly good shape now, but with the nagging injuries we have, it’s better for us to make sure a guy is healthy by not playing on turf.”

So don’t look for the Raiders to play cornerbacks Lionel Washington (hamstring) and Torin Dorn (hamstring); defensive tackle Chester McGlockton (leg) or linebacker James Folston (ankle).

“We’re in better shape than we were at this time last year,” Shell said. “We’ve been lucky. But at the same time, we’ve got in the work we’ve wanted to get in.”

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One Raider regular who might not get a rest Saturday is linebacker Mike Jones, who quietly has emerged as one of the league’s top pass coverage linebackers.

Against Houston’s modified run-and-shoot offense, Jones might get a lot of work in pass coverage defenses. “I might be in there because of their run-and-shoot and from the fact that we have a lot of (defensive backs) hurt,” said Jones, a four-year veteran who played running back in college at Missouri. “One good thing for me is that because we play (Houston) later in the season, they probably won’t show us too much. They might use a lot of two tight end sets, which would be fine with me.”

With so much focus placed on the Raider linebackers during the preseason because of second-year veteran Greg Biekert and rookies Rob Fredrickson, Rob Holmberg and Folston, Jones has quietly had a solid training camp.

“We’ve got a lot good players on this team, so not being recognized isn’t a problem,” said Jones, who had 39 tackles last season. “I do know that if I stay in there and continue to do a good job, after a while, the recognition will come.”