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According to Associated Press sports writer Janie McCauley, Jerry Porter has a strained stomach muscle and the Oakland Raiders are busy trying to figure out who to use as a deep threat come Sunday against Cincinnati.

The candidates are: Alvis Whitted, Ronald Curry and rookie Doug Gabriel -- practically no-names in this high-octane offense led by quarterback Rich Gannon, Jerry Rice, Porter and Tim Brown. While any of those three backups could be capable, they are also unproven.

Porter re-aggravated the injury that kept him out of the last two preseason games during the second quarter of the Sunday night's loss at Tennessee last week. He pulled himself out of the game and was listed as questionable Wednesday for this weekend.

However, head coach Bill Callahan told reporters that Porter would "most likely" be downgraded to doubtful.

This after Porter traveled Wednesday to Florida to get a second opinion.

"He doesn't think that he can go," Callahan said. "He feels he wants to have it looked at. That's his right and he's exercising it."

So, it would seem Porter is a long shot to play Sunday, because he likely won't be back in California until late Thursday or early Friday.

"The offense the way it's structured and the way it's designed has enormous flexibility to adjust to injuries," Callahan said.

The Raiders began their season-opener with five active receivers and by the end of the game they had three; Curry banged up a knee and also left.

"The game plan will stay the same," Curry said Wednesday. "Missing Jerry is going to mean a lot. We've got to go out there and just perform. It's what we do. It isn't that we don't have receivers to do it."