Dan Orlovsky Says the Raiders are Legit
Not everyone is buying the Raiders’ stock after a 3-0 start, but Jon Gruden is a believer and so is ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky.
“The Raiders look legit,” Orlovsky said on the Pat McAfee Show on Monday. “It does not look like a fluke through three weeks.”
Orlovsky said there is a lot to like about the Raiders but pointed to three players specifically who have impressed him during the undefeated start.
Cousins is the Reason the No. 1 Pick Can Wait
Pat McAfee set it up the way every Raiders conversation seems to go right now. They have the No. 1 overall pick, Fernando Mendoza, they don’t need him yet, and they’re winning.
“As fast as Brock Purdy is playing, I think I can say the same stuff for Kirk Cousins,” he said. “He is getting through their offense so quick. The ball is coming out so quickly.”
That’s the bet Klint Kubiak made when he named Cousins the starter over Mendoza. Through three games Cousins, has 9 touchdown passes and 3 interceptions on 92 attempts. He has only been sacked 5 times. That’s around 1 sack per 18 attempts which is slightly above the NFL average.
He isn’t standing back taking a tour of the pocket. He’s jumping through reads and getting to the throw immediately (NextGen stats has him at an average of 2.4 seconds Time to Throw), which is what you need from the quarterback in Kubiak’s scheme.
Bowers wasn’t Eased Back In
Orlovsky’s second reason was the one Raiders fans had been waiting on since Bowers’ knee surgery in the first week of September.
“Brock Bowers is unbelievable,” he said. “He steps right in. I think he went 10 for a buck fifteen and a touchdown. They had him doing George Kittle, Travis Kelce type stuff, winning on releases, putting him by himself.”
Week 3 in New Orleans was Bowers’ first game back. He caught 10 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown.
Orlovsky was a yard off, but who’s counting. The usage was exactly what he described. The Raiders didn’t work Bowers in on a pitch count. They isolated him, let him win the release, and he was the best playmaker on offense once again.
Nakobe Dean is the real deal (Orlovsky’s sack total was not)
“Nakobe Dean could be the best linebacker in football,” Orlovsky said. “I think he’s got like 30 tackles, three forced fumbles, three and a half sacks. He’s totally changed their defense.”
Dean has 3 forced fumbles (one in every game), 22 solo and 5 assisted tackles , 1.5 sacks, along with 3 tackles for loss and 2 quarterback hits. That’s a linebacker who’s stopping momentum and taking the ball away.
Safety Jeremy Chinn just told ESPN, “He’s been the glue to our defense.” He continued commenting on the effect he’s had on the defense as a whole, “It’s crazy how much a linebacker in the middle of the field can make such a difference in the back end and front end.”
x: @raidersbeat