Raheim Sanders injury: status, history and who gets his targets if he is out

Cleveland Browns · Running back · status this week: ON RESERVE / IR (ESPN)

Checked Oct 21, 2026.

Over his 1 full season on record, Raheim Sanders played 4 of 17 regular-season games (24%), and 5 of 6 so far in 2026. Season by season.

No absence modeled for week 7. There is no week 7 projection for him, so there is no “if he sits” to model this week. This page showed who gained while his absence was modeled earlier this season; that table returns whenever the model covers him again. His status and injury history below are current.

Injury history

Over his 1 full season on record, Raheim Sanders played 4 of 17 regular-season games (24%), and 5 of 6 so far in 2026.

Season	Team	Played	Missed	Listed out	Questionable	Injuries listed
2026	CLE	5 of 6	1	0	0	—
2025	CLE	4 of 17	13	0	0	—

Regular season only. Games played counts games with at least one offensive snap; designations are from the official weekly injury report, which does not list players on injured reserve, so a long absence shows as missed games rather than as weeks listed out.

What the data says happens

Measured across every regular-season game from 2018 onward, each beneficiary compared against his own trailing four-game form and net of what the same players do in weeks the room’s number one actually plays.

When a team’s number-one running back does not play, what each position group gains:

Room	Receptions gained	n	t
Receivers	+0.112	2,094	2.36
Tight ends	+0.103	1,258	2.16
Backs	+0.610	1,042	11.17

The room total is predictable. Which player takes it is not. Every candidate predictor of who gains — pecking order, snap share, route depth, trailing targets — correlates at roughly r = 0.02. In any single week one player usually takes about 60% of what was vacated; it is simply not predictably the same one.

Raheim Sanders’s full stats and usageSnap share, target share, game log and this week’s projection

Cascade effects 2018–2026, paired within player, net of control · projections as-of-week with no lookahead · 2026 week 7