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ALAMEDA -- It's still early in the week, but based on who the Raiders had at practice Wednesday, they could be facing prolific New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees with a depleted secondary.

Missing from practice as warm-ups and drills came to a close were free safety Matt Giordano (concussion) and strong safety Tyvon Branch (neck).

Also absent were running back Darren McFadden (ankle), running back Mike Goodson (ankle) and defensive tackle Richard Seymour (hamstring).

Tight end Brandon Myers was on the field, although chances are he won't be doing much after his second concussion of the season.

Brees leads the NFL with 2,847 yards passing with 25 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He'll be operating against an Oakland secondary which had trouble defending the middle in a 55-20 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, with Joe Flacco completing 21 of 30 passes for 341 yards, three touchdowns and an interception.

With both starting safeties out, the Raiders could move cornerback Michael Huff back to free safety, which would necessitate putting either Joselio Hanson, Brandian Ross, Coye Francies or Phillip Adams into the starting lineup opposite Ron Bartell.

Ross and Francies are predominantly special teams players. The Raiders cut Pat Lee, a starting cornerback for seven games in Bartell's absence, to make room for Bartell, with Allen citing the special teams work of the other cornerbacks.

Read more: More secondary woes for Oakland Raiders with Brees up next - Inside Bay Area

Stealthman

Still refusing to eat the cheese.

We'll see.

Just win, dangit!

QBREES9

One game at a time.

whodat4life

Looks like Graham could have another big game

Crusader

Except from a few superstars the difference in talent level between players are very very small. Even a team with "scrubs" can beat you if you play a bad game.

mikesaintfan

Kansas city comes to mind

TheEnigma

Even though we SHOULD win, it doesn't mean we WILL win.

dizzle88

Any given Sunday

we have to come out in attack mode and as Sean Payton would say "keep the gas pedal down"

Halo

Because we're favored and because it's Oakland, that makes them a DANGEROUS OPPONENT!

We've been known to elevate the level of our competition to god-like status before. All I can say is, if we drop a must-win game to an inferior opponent like the Raiders, it would be equal to chopping the tip off the wee-wee of every Saints fan -

D_it_up

I was thinking the same thing, along with Lance Moore. Colston could also step up. Any of those three could have huge games. Bad weather be damned.