Raiders OTAs Mailbag: Will front office add a veteran defensive back?
The Las Vegas Raiders wrapped up OTAs this week and will hold mandatory minicamp next Tuesday through Thursday before breaking for the summer. As touched on last week, the Raiders also got some extra salary cap space with Jimmy Garoppolo’s contract coming off the books after the June 1 deadline, so let’s dive into this week’s mailbag.
Question: For Patrick Graham’s system would the addition of a Justin Simmons be as beneficial as going for one of the vet corners?
Answer: I would still say going after a veteran outside corner would be more beneficial since the Raiders are so young and have a lot of question marks out there. Also, while Graham primarily uses nickel personnel, Nate Hobbs being a good slot corner and run defender gives the defense that extra defensive back without having a third safety on the field.
All of that being said, I do think Simmons could be an upgrade over Marcus Epps at safety, especially with his ball skills and ability to create turnovers. I like Epps and think he’s a solid player, but adding a four-time second-team All-Pro who led the league in interceptions two years ago would be better for the team in the short term.
Q: The Raiders have cap space, are we going to improve the secondary by adding a veteran corner? If not do you think the d-line will make the corners we have look great?
A: I’ve been pounding the table for the front office to add another corner for a while, however, it doesn’t seem like that will happen, according to The Athletic’s Tashan Reed.
“Despite having that additional room, the Raiders don’t plan on using it to make a major veteran acquisition, league sources told The Athletic,” Reed wrote on June 7. “They plan to preserve that money for in-season roster flexibility, looming extensions for players already on the roster and rollover cap space for 2025.
“…Coming out of the draft, the Raiders roster remains far from perfect. Still, they don’t view the players remaining in free agency — even at positions of need — as worthy of making a significant investment. Also, they have 91 players on their roster. They have an exemption for defensive end David Agoha, who signed with the team through the International Player Pathway program, but they’re still at the offseason roster limit of 90 players. So to add to the roster, they’d have to release someone already on it.”
Maybe things change if the cornerbacks struggle during next week’s mandatory minicamp or the beginning of training camp, but I wouldn’t hold my breath that a signing is coming based on the new information above from Reed.
The pass-rush can certainly help mask the secondary’s issues as Las Vegas has several defensive linemen who can force the ball out of the quarterback’s hand. However, sacks are going to be hard to come by if wide receiver are getting open quickly.
To me, it feels like the Raiders are putting a lot of faith into Jack Jones being their No. 1 corner this year and that’s a big gamble given Jones’ limited experience, in my opinion.
Q: Do you think the Raiders have enough speed at wide receiver to avoid opposing defenses? Like when we didn’t have Henry Ruggs I remembered a lot of INTs, especially against Kansas City. I don’t think we have enough speed to stretch defenses besides Tre Tucker.
A: Heading into the draft, I thought the front office would add another deep threat at receiver so I can definitely see where you’re coming from. Behind Tucker, Jalen Guyton could be the next guy in line when it comes to stretching the field as he used to have sub-4.4 speed. However, Guyton didn’t look the same last year after coming off a knee injury and wasn’t the deep threat he was in the past.
So, I definitely think that’s a weakness in Las Vegas’ offense. However, to play devil’s advocate, it’s not like they have a quarterback who has a strong enough arm to consistently push the ball down the field anyway. In other words, even if they had another speester out wide, I’m no so sure they’d be able to maximize said player’s skillset anyway.
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but to reiterate, I do like how the front office has given Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew weapons who can create yards after the catch to compliment their play styles. But we will see a lot of safeties play closer to the line of scrimmage until O’Connell or Minshew can start connecting with receivers on deep passes.
Q: Who’s on the short-list to return kick-offs this year?
A: Tucker, Dylan Laube, Tulu Griffin and Ameer Abdullah. If I had to really cut down on the list, I’d keep it to the first two. They’re more likely to make the team than Griffin and are younger than Abdullah as the coaching staff might want to keep the soon-to-be 31-year-old fresh for third downs and/or limit the amount of hits he has to take.
Q: Do you think the Raiders have improved their roster this season compared to the other teams in the AFC west going into the OTAs?
A: I have to admit that I do like what the Kansas City Chiefs have done to improve their receiving corps by adding Hollywood Brown and Xavier Worthy. That brings a lot of speed to their offense that the unit has been missing since trading Tyreek Hill. On the other end of the spectrum, I do think the loss of L’Jarius Sneed is going to impact the Chiefs’ defense this season more than they realize.
I definitely think the Raiders have done a better job of improving their roster than the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers.
The Broncos are in a rebuilding phase and had the Chargers hired any head coach other than Jim Harbaugh, I think there would be more discussion about them being toward the bottom of the league this season. Losing Keenan Allen, Mike Williams and Austin Ekeler is a significant hit to their offense that I don’t think Los Angeles’ front office adequately replaced those weapons.
A: Jakobi Meyers has never been much of a YAC guy as he’s not very shifty with the ball in his hands to make defenders miss and isn’t that fast to run away from defensive backs.
Meanwhile, last year was Davante Adams’ lowest YAC/recption (3.3) since 2015 and the second-lowest of his career, per PFF, and his average depth of target (ADOT) was 1.7 yards lower than it was in 2022 when he averaged 5.0 YAC/reception.
To me, Adams didn’t look as quick and explosive as he has in the past. So I think the age — turns 32 on Christmas Eve — is starting to catch up to him. We’ll see how it goes this year as Luke Getsy did call a lot of screens in Chicago which will inflate that YAC figure above.
A: I’m intrigued by the running back committee approach and am encouraged with how Zamir White finished last season. So, while I don’t think there will be one back who solely replaces Josh Jacobs’ production, I have faith that the running game as a whole will be improved compared to 2023.
While I’m not a huge fan of Alexander Mattison either, I’d take him over J.K. Dobbins. There’s a lot of mileage on Dobbins’ legs as he’s suffered significant injuries over the last three year — a couple of knee injuries, including a torn ACL, and a torn Achilles. He had a good rookie season but has only played in nine games (including playoffs) since then.
A: I do have to point out the irony in saying that you don’t want a bunch of talk and want to see results while asking a question, lol! Sorry, I’m not trying to be a jerk or anything like that, that was just funny to me.
Barring a dramatic turn of events where the players turn on Antonio Pierce or something else significant like that, I think he’ll get at least two full seasons as head coach. Churning through head coaches year after year like the Raiders did during the later stages of Al Davis’ tenure wasn’t a successful model and I don’t think Mark wants to repeat that.
Typically, when head coaches get fired after one year its because they’ve lost the locker room like Nathaniel Hackett did in Denver or the organization has an over-involved and impatient owner like David Tepper with the Carolina Panthers. Seeing as the players vouched and were very vocal in their support for AP, I don’t see the former happening a year later.
It can take time to rebuild a culture within an organization and, for better or worse, the Raiders’ quarterback situation is kind of a built in excuse for Pierce this season.
So, I think he’ll be back for a second season regardless of if the team’s record doesn’t improve or gets worse. Then, it’d be on the front office to find an answer under center in the offseason and Pierce’s job would be on the line if Las Vegas doesn’t become a playoff contender.
Q: What’s the future of Raiders blogging? Seems like all of the independent sites that would provide unbiased content are disappearing. If you look at Bleacher Report, search engines, etc. it’s all corporate owned sites that have cookie cutter approaches. No offense, you do good work.
A: I think the sports media industry as a whole has taken some hits over the last few years as even big companies like ESPN have had several rounds of layoffs recently. Especially when it comes to writing, it’s not as profitable as it used to be so companies go with what works (i.e. gets clicks) which has led to the cookie cutter approach.
People love to complain about click bait, but there’s a reason why click bait exits, it draws traffic because people still click on it and fall for the “trap”. And while we get what feels like hundreds of ‘Top 5 quarterbacks’ listicles (or whatever) every summer, those do well because people look for things to argue about when they’re bored.
How does that relate to blogging? With the industry struggling as a whole and the big players in it having a hard time staying in the black, smaller platforms suffer as well so most bloggers do it as a hobby or on the side. However, it can be like having another full-time job without the full-time pay so it gets exhausting.
I’m lucky to be able to make enough money to do this as a full-time gig and support my family, but I also have several different contracts with different companies to make that happen. In full disclosure, I almost shut it down and was going to move onto something else before having a breakthrough a couple of years ago. It took a long time for me to get here and I am blessed to be in a great situation with a support system to help turn my dream into a reality.
Also, I’ll admit that I’m guilty of doing the cookie cutter approach mentioned above occasionally. However, like any job, sometimes you have do to things that aren’t your favorite to be able to do the stuff you do like.
I have no idea what the future of blogging will look like, but I hope that more informative content will eventually reign supreme again.
That’ll do it for this week’s mailbag. Thank you all for submitting questions and, as your weekly reminder, if you’d like to have your questions answered in a future column, tweet them at me, @MHolder95, email them to SBPQuestions1@gmail.com or look for our weekly call for questions on the site. The latter will continue to publish on Thursdays.
