Last offseason, the Las Vegas Raiders signed Kenyan Drake to a two-year, $14.5 million deal. He started the season slowly, but that wasn’t entirely his fault. Jon Gruden’s offense didn’t give him nearly enough opportunities, and the chances he did get were misused. However, after Gruden’s resignation, the offense opened up a bit more, and Drake saw more opportunities. With those extra chances, he began to flourish.
Drake’s skillset was misunderstood
In the first five games of the season, Gruden was leading the Raiders’ offense. During this time, he was trying to work with the Raiders’ running back duo that included Drake and Josh Jacobs.
Gruden wasn’t successful with these two, and especially not with Drake. Through that time, the highest number of carries Drake got in a game was eight. In the two losses to the Los Angeles Chargers and Chicago Bears, he got just three combined. He had zero receptions with just one target in those two games as well.
All too often, he was being misused. At some points, Jacobs should have been looked at as the lead power back. However, we would see Gruden run Kenyan Drake up the middle on a third-and-one and throw a swing route to Jacobs on the next drive. Drake was signed to compliment Jacobs’ skillset, not replace it.
Drake’s emergence with a new offense
Then, after Gruden was fired, the Raiders won two games against the Denver Broncos and Philadelphia Eagles. A large reason for that was Drake. He only ran the ball four times against the Broncos, but a large reason for that was the fact that Las Vegas held a lead throughout the game, giving Jacobs more opportunities to run the clock down. Where Drake was utilized was in the passing game. As the video shows, he caught two passes down the field. One of them led to a touchdown, which is shown below.
Kenyan Drake hauls in the DIME pic.twitter.com/Rn6aLMO9fH
— Win City Silver & Black Pride (@SilverBlakPride) October 17, 2021
The following week, the Raiders beat the Eagles, 33-22, and Drake showed what he could do when given the opportunity. He was given the ball 14 times and ran for 69 yards, good enough for nearly five yards per carry and a touchdown.
As the season went on, Drake would go on to see an increase in his rushing attempts and targets. He was able to benefit from more creative play-calling as well, which allowed him to showcase the reason he was originally signed for. In addition, Drake was finally able to complement Jacobs in the run game.
Drake’s future with the Raiders
Unfortunately, as Drake was in the midst of a mid-season revival, it was suddenly cut short. He got twisted up while being tackled in the Raiders’ 17-15 loss to Washington and broke his ankle. He would miss the rest of the season.
On a more fortunate note, barring any unusual setbacks, Drake will be ready to start the 2022 season healthy. Another fortunate thing for Drake is that Las Vegas hired Josh McDaniels to be their head coach. If there’s one thing McDaniels knows how to do, it’s how to run an offense and get the best out of his players. Drake has one more year left on his contract, but it should be a good one with McDaniels at the helm.
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*Top Photo: Chris Unger/Getty Images