With Amari Cooper joining the Raiders on Monday, there’s no question the cornerback room in Las Vegas is now the most unproven position group on the roster.
For better or worse, former Packer Eric Stokes has become the no. 1 cornerback on the team, but according to Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers, Stokes has shown room for improvement and there are plenty of questions at cornerback behind him.
“Look, we don’t talk about Eric Stokes a lot, but it’s not like he was just locked down throughout the course of preseason. You know, he had his moments where it’s like, ‘Ah, that wasn’t too good’ and even seeing him during training camp, there’s times where I’ve seen him get beat multiple times. I’m like, ‘Man, that’s not looking so good,'” Myers said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show podcast. “[Stokes], I think, is probably the best one in that secondary right now, as far as outside corners.”
As for the other cornerbacks on the Raiders’ roster, Myers says there is still a lot to be sorted out.
“Darien Porter is a young guy that I have high hopes on, but he’s barely been playing the position. You know, so he’s still trying to come around and learn. Kyu Blu Kelly has been giving him a run for his money, and he’s got a bad hamstring? So he’s been nicked up a little bit [and] they got a couple of weeks to get him healthy, but that’s something to monitor,” Myers continued.
“You guys know how I felt about Darnay Holmes. I thought he was on the roster bubble for the longest. I still think that there’s a question of how long he’s going to be there, and maybe Greedy Vance will take that spot at some point. So there’s definitely a lot of questions in the secondary. [Decamerion] Richardson got some burn last year. He started looking good really early in training camp, but it felt like it started to tail off for me. He was trending in the wrong direction, as opposed to getting better. He was regressing a little bit. So there’s not a lot of depth there. NFL experience, there is not a lot of that there… and playing together in this system, not a lot of that there. So the secondary definitely some big questions.”
The good news for the Raiders, despite the many unproven cornerbacks in the building, is that Pete Carroll has a history of developing corners. It’s been one of the staples of his career as a head coach.
There will be growing pains, but for now it seems like the plan is to let the young players develop in the secondary.
At the same time, Carroll has been clear that he wants to win now, so it’s going to be interesting to see how much patience he’ll have – not just with the cornerbacks but with the entire roster.
x: @raidersbeat