Maurice Hurst, Defensive Tackle
Maurice “Mo” Hurst was a first-round talent coming out of Michigan in 2018. Sadly, a heart condition scared teams off and saw him drop all the way to the fifth round. Once he fell, the Raiders happily snatched him up and plugged him in as a starter. He started 10 games in his rookie season and put up solid numbers with four sacks and three tackles for loss on a defense that struggled to generate any sort of pass rush or consistent pressure.
In his second season, he started fewer games but played 50% of the defensive snaps, responding with another solid statistical season. Hurst recorded 3.5 sacks, four tackles for loss, two fumble recoveries, and even had an interception that he nearly returned for a touchdown. It looked like the Raiders had a diamond in the rough. In addition, he was a player that improved yearly but something changed in the 2020 season.
Maliek Collins was signed by the Raiders and was hailed as the “key to the defense” by Jon Gruden. Nonetheless, he struggled mightily and had little impact all season. He took the lion’s share of the snaps from Hurst who saw his snap counts dwindle from 522 in 2019 to just over half that with 277 in 2020. With his snaps limited, his stats plummeted but he still graded out well with a 77.9 grade from Pro Football Focus. It was obvious that he was miles ahead of Collins on that unit.
The Raiders have displayed a pattern…
After the poor 2020 season, we expected the Raiders to retain Hurst and let him compete with the new additions like Quinton Jefferson and Solomon Thomas for a starting role alongside Johnathan Hankins. Instead, he was released early in the offseason and signed with the San Francisco 49ers. Jefferson and Thomas could very well end up being upgrades over Hurst but giving up on a homegrown young player with great potential is unfortunate.
The Raiders have displayed a pattern of giving up too soon on many young defensive linemen. Some of these linemen go on to have productive careers with other teams. Recent examples include Mario Edwards and perhaps most notably, Denico Autry, who has been excellent in recent years with the Indianapolis Colts. Hurst will almost certainly have more success in Frisco as he has the benefit of playing on a better defensive line. It will be a painful sight for fans to see him rack up stats in red and gold and not Silver and Black.
[tps_title]Up Next: Jeff Heath[/tps_title]