Do the Raiders have an emerging starter in second year defensive tackle Tonka Hemingway?
Through the first week of training camp, Hemingway has been sharing first-team reps with Adam Butler and Jonah Laulu, and defensive coordinator Rob Leonard said Hemingway is continuing to build on an impressive offseason.
“He has done everything right, from what he controls from the offseason,” Leonard said on Thursday. “Learned a lot of good routine from Maxx. It’s been fun to watch him develop as a man, as a player, now he’s got to prepare to put pads on.”
Prior to Leonard’s comments, the California Post’s Vinny Bonsignore said last week that Hemingway was a player the coaching staff was high on going into training camp.
“He needs to take that next step, but there’s a lot of people in the building that believe [Hemingway] will take that next step,” Bonsignore said on Raider Nation Radio’s Morning Tailgate.
“That’s why there’s such intrigue and just quiet confidence in the building that Tonka Hemingway is going to be a pretty darn good player this year for the Raiders. That’s a very real thing I can assure you… Him stepping up obviously would just help the defense immensely. But it’s not even just ‘Man, he needs to step it up.’ There’s a real expectation that he’s going to do exactly that.”
Last year, Hemingway wasn’t a factor in the early part of the season. He got on the field in spells at the mid-point of the season and was sidelined again in weeks 12 and 13.
After week 13,though, Hemingway emerged with four sacks in the final five games of the season.
Pete Carroll’s impact on the Raiders’ defense in ’25
Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter talked about the Hemingway and J.J. Pegues on his podcast this week and he believes the divide between former head coach Pete Carroll and former defensive coordinator Patrick Graham hurt the development of the rookie defensive tackles.
“One guy, who I thought yesterday was good, but today looked dominant [was] Tonka Hemingway… He is a monster,” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast on Thursday.
“I talked last year about Tonka, and J.J. Pegues, and talked about where would they have been. The defensive coaching last year was not the problem. The head coach, his impact on the defense was the problem.”
“Just like the coach had nothing to do with the offense, well, he had too much to do with the defense. I’ve talked about that a lot. I’m done talking about last year, but I thought those two young men were really hindered.”
x: @raidersbeat
Pete hire was a Joke !!!! Time waits for no one !!!