Earlier this offseason, the Las Vegas Raiders made their first splash move by signing edge rusher, Chandler Jones. Jones was inked to a three-year, $3.5 million deal. That deal made Jones one of the highest-paid players on the Raiders’ team right away.
In a subsequent move, just hours after that signing was announced, Las Vegas traded Yannick Ngakoue to the Indianapolis Colts. After signing Jones, the move made sense. Looking back, it wouldn’t have been smart business to keep all three edge rushers (Maxx Crosby included) from a financial standpoint, let alone a schematic one. With Crosby and Jones now on board long-term, how did the Raiders come out of all of this?
What does Chandler Jones bring to the Raiders?
Jones had a solid year in 2021. As an edge rusher, the most important quality Jones can provide is his consistent ability to get to the quarterback. Jones happens to be one of the best in the game when it comes to that, which is why the Raiders rewarded him with $52 million.
Pro Football Focus gave Jones a pass-rush grade of 87.7, good enough for ninth in the NFL. His new teammate, Maxx Crosby, happens to be ranked second on that very list. Jones also had 10.5 sacks, which was the 13th highest in the league. Statistically, rushing the passer, Jones is no longer considered a top five edge rusher in the league. Still, Jones is undeniably talented and should be considered among the top ten or so pass rushers.
For run defense, Jones isn’t as strong. Jones had 41 tackles last year, with 31 of those being solo and 10 assisted. His PFF run-defense grade is concerning, ranked at just 40.4. This isn’t a large issue for the Raiders, as Jones’ biggest impact during games will undoubtedly be his pass rushing skills. Due to the position he plays, he doesn’t need to be great, but for him to help the Raiders to the fullest extent next year, he’ll have to keep from getting exposed on run defense, which is also defensive coordinator Patrick Graham’s job. Now how does he compare to the former Raider, Yannick Ngakoue?
Yannick Ngakoue’s time with the Raiders
Compared to Jones, Ngakoue had a solid year in 2021 as well. Yannick did rush the passer well, but not at the same rate as Jones. Ngakoue’s PFF pass-rushing grade was good, but at 66.3 it was significantly lower than Chandler’s. Ironically, he had the same number of sacks as Jones, with 10. For a player to have the same number of sacks but a significantly lower pass-rushing grade, one has to look at their pressures and the rate at which they’re getting to opposing signal-callers. This means Jones must get to the quarterback far more often, but when Yannick was in the vicinity, he was much more efficient at recording the sack.
As for run-defense, that’s an area Yannick struggles severely with. Throughout all of last year, Ngakoue had just 28 total combined tackles. His PFF run grade was just 28.2. That is among the worst of any player in his position, and on running downs, Yannick was quite a liability.
So, did the Raiders get better or worse?
After looking at the numbers, it does seem like this swap made the Raiders better. Although they had the same number of sacks, Jones was able to create more havoc and generally get into the backfield more often than Ngakoue. Jones, although not tremendous against the run, was light years better than Ngakoue. With those facts combined, it seems that the Raiders got far better by adding Chandler Jones.
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*Top Photo: Reddit/Raiders