The Raiders are coming off the bye week with big opportunity to turn around the season this week against the Jaguars, and to make that happen, former Raiders’ O-lineman Marshall Newhouse wants to see an adjustment from the coaching staff at the cornerback position.
Statistically, Kyu Blu Kelly has been one of the least effective cornerbacks in the NFL in the first seven weeks of the season, and Newhouse wants to see third-round pick Darien Porter on the field going forward.
“It’s a weird thing because, generally, if a rookie is kind of in over his head and you can tell in camp, then throwing him out there in the fire doesn’t always serve him. We understand that. But this absolutely feels like Darien Porter belongs in the NFL. It’s not too big for him,” Newhouse said on the Just Win podcast.
“Maybe you throw him in there and he makes a few mistakes, but he will learn faster. He’s one of those guys, I think, who will learn faster from live rounds, from live reps. And why they’re depriving him of that, there’s got to be something that we just don’t know,” Newhouse continued. “I talked about this with JPJ. It’s just like a friction that we don’t know about. Are they protecting him from something?”
“Does he just not have it mentally? Like, you know… they can’t trust you to be out there? But when he has been out there, he’s performed pretty admirably, so I imagine there’s got to be a shake up if they’re doing any kind of good faith, self-assessment, self-scouting. There’s gotta be a shake up to at least get him on the field.”
Blu Kelly has given up more receiving yards than any cornerback in the league, according to Pro Football Focus analytics, while Porter has held his own in minimal opportunities on the field.
Porter was one of the most intriguing picks in this year’s draft and in 112 defensive snaps, he has managed the highest Pro Football Focus grade of any cornerback on the Raiders’ roster. But even as Blu Kelly has been struggling, Porter logged only 13 snaps two weeks ago (all while the Chiefs were running out the clock) and zero snaps the week before.
As Newhouse pointed out, if the Raiders’ coaching staff wants to operate in any kind of good faith with the locker room, there has to be an adjustment made at the cornerback position.
If it has been this obvious from the outside, why hasn’t it been as obvious on the inside?
Inquiring minds would love to know.
x: @raidersbeat
They did the same thing with JPJ. I don’t believe this coaching staff has the ability to coach young players. None of their young players are getting on the field to show what they have besides Jeanty who’s been handled badly and Thornton who was hyped up but hasn’t performed. The young players are probably as discouraged with the coaching as their fan base.
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Team Turmoil