No moves yet, but McClain not at Raiders practice

ALAMEDA -- Rolando McClain, who purportedly took to Facebook on Wednesday to announce his dismissal from the Raiders while the team said he was still on the roster, was not at practice Thursday. And yes, the Raiders said he was still on the roster.What's the holdup?Well, with reports surfacing that McClain got into a heated argument with coach Dennis Allen on the practice field Wednesday and thus, getting kicked out of practice, and general manager Reggie McKenzie telling CSNCalifornia.com that McClain had not been cut, perhaps the Raiders are looking into ways to suspend McClain the maximum four games without pay for conduct detrimental.Because if they simply cut him, it would be, in a way, rewarding the middle linebacker, who is still owed a prorated 285,294.12 of his 970,000 base salary for 2012. He would hit the open market, so to speak, and could potentially join a future Raiders opponent and, ahem, share the Raiders playbook with that team.Suspending him and thus, making him inactive for the rest of the season, would keep him in place, so that he could not hit the market. And then, maybe, McKenzie could find a willing trade partner this offseason for a lower round draft pick.Of course, it's all speculation at this point. At least, until Allen speaks to the media just after 1 p.m. PT.McClain, the No. 8 overall pick of the 2010 draft out of Alabama, has struggled mightily in his NFL career, dealing with both injuries and off-the-field issues.He was taken off the field in nickel packages after Week 4, in part, to help his conditioning to play better against the run. But he has had notable misses this season. In his career, McClain has 6 12 sacks, one interception, on forced fumble and no fumble recoveries in 41 games. Not exactly the stats of a cornerstone middle linebacker.And one year ago tomorrow, McClain was arrested for, and later convicted of, charges of third-degree assault, menacing, discharging a handgun in city limits and reckless endangerment and was sentenced to six months in jail and slapped with a 2,000 fine. Since then, the Raiders are 4-12.Earlier this month, after he appealed, the charges were dropped."I'm aware of the bad publicity that I've given the Raiders," McClain said in a statement to reporters back in May. "After talking to Coach (Dennis) Allen, I have the support of the Raiders, my teammates, as well as the coaching staff. I apologize for the bad publicity that's been put out there. But it is a legal process and I can't talk much about it, but I think in due time the Raiders and the Raiders fans that are out there will see it all come to an end. It is what it is; I can't really talk much about it but it will be resolved in the near future."In fact, McClain was given a clean slate by McKenzie."Since we've been here, he's been great," McKenzie told a group of reporters in a roundtable session following the end of mandatory minicamp in June. "I'm not going to hold anything over his head about what he's done in the past. We're only concerned what he does from here on out."Per his rookie contract, McClain is due to make 4.005 million in base salary in 2013 (a salary cap number of 6.675 million), 5.805 million in 2014 (8.475 million cap number) and 2.665 million (5.085 million cap number) in 2015.