Going into the 2026 season, the Raiders had a lot of questions at cornerback, but the player they felt most comfortable with was veteran CB Eric Stokes.
Stokes signed a three-year, $30 million deal with the Raiders in the offseason, but through five games he has been arguably the worst player on the roster in coverage.
In fact, Pro Football Focus analytics says Stokes has been the least effective player on the team in coverage.
Stokes’ 37.9 PFF grade in coverage is ranked 17th out of 17 players who have played a defensive snap for the Raiders this year.
On the flip side, the team’s top-graded defensive back in coverage this year has surprisingly been second-year cornerback Darien Porter.
Porter has given up just three receptions on nine targets this year and leads the team in both pass breakups (2) and forced incompletions (3).
Raiders HC praised Porter on Monday
Head coach Klint Kubiak talked about Porter’s effort against the Patriots on Sunday, and said he was impressed with the second-year cornerback.
“He’s a guy that was starting, lost his starting job for a week and is so mentally tough that he came back in and played really good football yesterday,” Kubiak said about Porter on Monday.
“[He] played very competitive, and that’s not a surprise. That’s the kind of guy that he is. He’s just going to continue to get better, and him and Zeke will compete for that job.”
The Athletic’s Ted Nguyen believes Porter deserves to slip past Hezekiah on the depth chart for at least this week.
“I thought Darien Porter was better [on Sunday]. Porter did get beat once but was on that cover zero blitz where it was an all-out blitz and they picked it up. It was just too much time to cover a receiver as fast a Kyle Williams,” Nguyen said on the Just Win podcast this week.
“I think Porter, I don’t know if he won the job for the rest of the season, but he definitely will get a bigger look… I wouldn’t be surprised if he had the majority of snaps for the next game.”
For what it’s worth, Nguyen also though Porter was worthy of being the team’s no. 2 cornerback based on what he saw in training camp and preseason. So Nguyen’s sample size on Porter goes back to even before the season started.
x: @raidersbeat
