The Las Vegas Raiders have had a porous defense for what seems like an eternity. Due to this, Jon Gruden’s team has had to invest a lot of draft capital on defensive backs. The question is, has it been in vain up to this point?
Over the course of these past few years, the Raiders have picked up several defensive backs through the NFL draft. This year’s player selection meeting was no different, they drafted Trevon Moehrig, Tyree Gillespie, Divine Deablo, and Nate Hobbs. They’ve also drafted Johnathan Abram, Damon Arnette, Trayvon Mullen, and Isaiah Johnson. Despite a steady flow of young talent, the defense has been devoid of progress. A lot of this falls on former defensive coordinator Paul Guenther and his ineptitude in developing his unit. Considering that Gus Bradley has taken over the defense, his track record suggests these defensive backs will be in good hands.
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NBC Sports has questions for the Raiders…
Warren Sharp of NBC Sports recognized recently that Las Vegas did indeed need help in the secondary. However, he noted that the process in which the team evaluates and drafts prospects is broken. He shed light on the fact that most of the draft picks that were used to address the secondary have floundered, most notably Gareon Conley and Obi Melifonwu. The unit has been so putrid it hasn’t been ranked higher than 26 since 2017 despite a steady flow of defenders.
Essentially, Sharp believes that the evaluation process needs to be addressed and changed. While the analyst raises good questions, it’s highly unlikely the way the Raiders operate will change anytime soon. For now, fans are hoping that Bradley is the key to turning around an otherwise unimpressive secondary.
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*Top Photo: Associated Press/Isaac Brekken
The two players he mentioned were drafted by the previous GM, and Conley was generally considered a steal where was picked at the time due to off field concerns. Obi was considered a athletic freak who would need some coaching, but many had him mocked in the first round. Neither player worked out, but it’s hard to fault the picks.
Look I just watched an interview Gruden had after season. He defended his poor coaching n GM capabilities by commenting that team is very close (a player or so away). He thought he would also use games he said they should have won as examples.
Now lets go over problems with that interview as it relates to what Gruden (not Mayock as Mayock makes no decisions) has done this offseason. If team was as close as Gruden portrayed then we would not have seen the substantial amount of player changes occurring. Gruden also failed to remember that there were games Raiders won that they should have lost n lets not forget the game Gruden lost with game decisions and almost another just like prior
Gruden appears to have taken approach of just get as many players as you can find for positions and worry bout everything else later. So now team has large surplus of players at certain positions without sense of why he is doing things he does.
Gruden suffers from contract2long flu n since Davis is the vaccine n infatuated with at best Mediocre Gruden he will be around for many more offseasons regardless of what horrible moves n decisions made. Gruden can never earn the contract given at this point even if team began winning which doesnt appear soon.