Ever since the Khalil Mack trade, the Raiders have been searching hard to find his replacement. Clelin Ferrell and Maxx Crosby showed up as rookies in 2019 and based on general manager Mike Mayock’s comments this week, he feels defensive end is once again one of the strengths of the Raider defense.
Not surprisingly, Mayock pointed at the safety and linebacker positions as areas where the Raiders need to improve from a personnel standpoint, but he also said they need to get better at defensive tackle.
“We’ve got linebacker issues, people know that. We’ve got to get better at defensive tackle,” Mayock told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “We’ve got to get better on the back end. So we have a lot of holes to fill on defense.”
Going into the 2019 season, defensive tackle was the defensive position the Raiders seemed to have the most potential. They had invested in the position both in the draft and in free agency and the combination of Mo Hurst, P.J. Hall, and Johnathan Hankins looked like a group that might stand out – which in some ways they did.
According to Pro Football Focus analytics, Hurst and Hall were the two highest-graded full-time players on the Raider defense. But maybe that wasn’t saying a lot because neither were graded among the top 35 defensive tackles in the NFL by Pro Football Focus.
The real takeaway from Mayock’s comments and the PFF grading should probably be that the Raiders are still incredibly lacking on defense. Even their positions of strength are inferior to the rest of the league.
One or two players in the draft isn’t going to fix the Raiders defense and that’s another reason why they are a good bet to try and trade back in the first round of the draft. Mayock would love to add a second-round pick and bring in as many young players (preferably on defense) as possible… and if he gets the chance, expect it to happen.
twitter: @raidersbeat
They will pick some in Free agency as well. Defense wins Super bowls. Smaller fast guys don’t cut it, we need to over power at the line and collapse the pocket. On both sides it comes down to the line. I agree trading down will allow us to get more picks. There is a lot of proof there are great players in 2nd and third round. We also need Gruden to utilize a two back set with play action passes that give receivers time to separate through speed and he needs to start scrambling instead of sitting in the pocket because of the power and speed of defenses today. He needs to have receivers he can trust to go up and battle and catch the ball as well.
The Raiders were the No. 8 rushing defense in the NFL. Nothing wrong with the D-line. If they resign Joseph there won’t be problem at safety either. As I said many times a group consisting of Joyner, Joseph, Harris, & Abram is pretty good. There’s good depth there. Joyner just needs to be moved back to his natural position.
Inferior to the rest of the league? Such bullshit!
Trade back? Ridiculous!!!! Raiders have 2 -1st and 3 3rd round. Make it happen. Not gonna hurt them not having a 2nd. They shouldn’t have gave Chicago that pick to begin with. C’MON MAN
Well one thing for sure. You never know what Coach is going to do, but he’s the best at doing it.
too early to give up on Mo Hearst and PJ Hall . get best available receiver at 12, best linebacker at 19 . trust maycock to find starters in the third.DK