Raiders Defense

[Justwinning]

47 minutes ago, agarcia34 said:

I know PG doesn't have the guys he needs, but he gotta go. Someone has to take the bullet for this. Cause this defense is bad like really really bad. The Raiders need a change at  DC. Need a new face. Need a new scheme. For the better part of my life. I have seen this defense be awful 99 percent of the time. Honestly can't remember when the Raiders had a decent defense. I don't know how you can keep PG going into Vegas. This team lacks talent on defense with a few pieces that you can build with. They have ignored the LB position for so long and the middle of this defense is so weak cause of it. Teams constantly attack the middle of the field over and over and over. Seeing Whitehead and Morrow out there is disgusting. Will Compton was a podcaster before he signed with the Raiders can't blame him much. He's just trying to get some nice checks one last time. 

Joyner has been a huge FA bust. Eat the cap hit so you don't have to deal with him. On the first day where you can release players Whitehead, Joyner need to be given their walking papers. 

DT's all around have been bad. Hankins is the best one. Hurst and Hall are just guys. DT is a huge need. 

Raiders need to open up the bank on defensive players in FA. There's a few difference makers that will be available on defense in FA. Raiders can't be cheap. 

I don't know who is out there as far as defensive coordinators, but Gruden needs to do the right thing and that makes the change. Give an up and coming DC a shot. Maybe they can be creative enough to bring something new to this team. PG scheme just not cutting it. 

Why make a change for the hell of it? Who else will be available and will they be better than PG? He’s had some decent games from his defense and some really bad ones. Get him some more talent. If he doesn’t do better next year then yea, can him.

[MrOaktown_56]

8 minutes ago, Justwinning said:

Why make a change for the hell of it? Who else will be available and will they be better than PG? He’s had some decent games from his defense and some really bad ones. Get him some more talent. If he doesn’t do better next year then yea, can him.

Agree I'm not PG's biggest fan, but you gotta give him a chance with more talent.

[NJ Raider]

Hopefully they don't pass on lbs. They've wanted one in the draft the past few years.

[holyghost]

16 minutes ago, NJ Raider said:

Hopefully they don't pass on lbs. They've wanted one in the draft the past few years.

Hope so too. Watching this D, almost every play I can't even pick out a LB. It's like I said last week, if anything gets past the Dline it's right on to the secondary. Worst linebackers imaginable. This is a 2 level defense.

[MrOaktown_56]

What I find most horrific about our LB's, whitehead included, is that I have a feeling we could fish a LB off a practice squad of another team with some speed and even if they're raw, they could step in and outplay him immediately. 

[SimonGruber]

 

[Geezy]

39 minutes ago, MrOaktown_56 said:

What I find most horrific about our LB's, whitehead included, is that I have a feeling we could fish a LB off a practice squad of another team with some speed and even if they're raw, they could step in and outplay him immediately. 

LB core is beyond atrocious

[NCOUGHMAN]

On 12/8/2019 at 6:49 PM, Justwinning said:

Why make a change for the hell of it? Who else will be available and will they be better than PG? He’s had some decent games from his defense and some really bad ones. Get him some more talent. If he doesn’t do better next year then yea, can him.

I’ve always been a Rivera fan I think he’s a better dc than hc. 

[Humble_Beast]

Rivera

[oakdb36]

How do you miss that? He's tackled.

[Rolni]

With DJ Swearinger out and Joyner healthy I think they will try to decide whether Joyner can be a starter at FS for us. I think he showed this year so far, that he is not the answer at NCB and now he is playing for his contract basically...

Harris should start alongside Joyner and Riley with Leavitt should back them up IMO. I don't really want to see Worley back at S.

At CB I would like to see Isaiah Johnson more and more and also Nixon should get some nickel touches from Lawson IMO. We need to know what we have in them...

 

 

[Rolni]

On 2019. 12. 11. at 12:44 PM, Rolni said:

With DJ Swearinger out and Joyner healthy I think they will try to decide whether Joyner can be a starter at FS for us. I think he showed this year so far, that he is not the answer at NCB and now he is playing for his contract basically...

Harris should start alongside Joyner and Riley with Leavitt should back them up IMO. I don't really want to see Worley back at S.

At CB I would like to see Isaiah Johnson more and more and also Nixon should get some nickel touches from Lawson IMO. We need to know what we have in them...

 

 

And obviously Gruden came out and said that Joyner remains the NCB and Worley will play S...I can't see the logic here...

Joyner was bad all year, Lawson played equal to him IMO at least. While Worley played solid at CB...

It doesn't really make any sense to me unless they want to keep Worley around as S for the upcoming years and now they test him in live action for that role...

Worley has the size to play S and I always felt like he is a bit slow for our man style at CB, also Gruden talked about some big picture before:

“Hopefully he can do that,” Gruden said. “We have a big picture [plan] for Worley. We think Worley is going to be a hybrid player for us. A guy that can play at safety, at nickel, at left corner or right. As we go down the stretch here I think Worley’s role is going to expand.”

Maybe they want him as a CB/S hybrid with special duties? Can he cover TEs?

Interesting...

He will be an UFA, so I guess they has to sell him that grand plan too to sign him back after the season...

 

He could be the starter with Mullen as the outside CB in base/4DB sets and then can rotate into S/big nickel if we need him to and hoepfully I.Johnson can be the outside guy then.

Lawson or Nelson or Nixon could be the small NCB for the quick guys, so we can let Joyner walk...

Karl and Abram can be the strating duo with Harris and some as depth...

I could see that working fine as long as we have some pass rush finally...

[Rolni]

I wanted to find something positive about our D this year and especially before this Jags game, so I checked our runD.

https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/dl/2019

According to this site we have the 7th best DL against the run. I'm not sure how much is this inflated because our bad pass D, but we improved in run D from last year that is sure.

We are pretty solid in that first big chart for most part. The only issue I see is our power success...we seem to give on in the short sure run plays. I'm not sure what is the issue here, I would guess that you need really solid LB play in situations like this to find the lane where the RB is coming and meet him early. The DL can take on the OL and allow a little push, but if the RB can find a way the second level needs to arrive too. I think this is missing for us. Abram and Joseph together would help in this regard IMO, but we need better LB play for sure.

If we check the next chart, where they show the run directions, we can see that we are great in the middle and solid against the RTs. J.Hankins is the guy we need to mention here IMO. He controlls that middle section and help out the LDE too.

We need to get better against the LTs and to the outside areas. Better RDT play is needed IMO and we definately need our young DEs to get stronger at RDE. Both Ferrell and Crosby plays there...

Then again we need better OLB play and some fast, active S's. 

 

Our sack numbers and adjusted sack rate is still among the worst in the NFL, but at least we have that run D to build on. With the way Crosby playing and Ferrell's draft status I think it is fair to expect them back as starters, so we need to make sure we have some solid rotational rushers like Mayowa, whom I would keep. I would like to see an upgrade over Key tho.

 

I would welcome a strong starting DT next to Hankins and in front of Hurst.

I would welcome a solid rotational pass rusher DE.

I would welcome at least 2 new, quality LBs! Whitehead should be a 2 down SLB for us if we keep him. We need an every down MLB and fast cover WLB. Shop one during FA and then draft the other early. Morrow, Lee can provide depth.

I would like to see Karl back at S and I would like to see a new NCB in Joyner's place. 

Then we can hope that the young DE's take a step forward and Guenther shows that with a better roster he can be a quality DC and field an actual, solid NFL defense.  

[Darbsk]

1 hour ago, Rolni said:

I wanted to find something positive about our D this year and especially before this Jags game, so I checked our runD.

https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/dl/2019

According to this site we have the 7th best DL against the run. I'm not sure how much is this inflated because our bad pass D, but we improved in run D from last year that is sure.

We are pretty solid in that first big chart for most part. The only issue I see is our power success...we seem to give on in the short sure run plays. I'm not sure what is the issue here, I would guess that you need really solid LB play in situations like this to find the lane where the RB is coming and meet him early. The DL can take on the OL and allow a little push, but if the RB can find a way the second level needs to arrive too. I think this is missing for us. Abram and Joseph together would help in this regard IMO, but we need better LB play for sure.

If we check the next chart, where they show the run directions, we can see that we are great in the middle and solid against the RTs. J.Hankins is the guy we need to mention here IMO. He controlls that middle section and help out the LDE too.

We need to get better against the LTs and to the outside areas. Better RDT play is needed IMO and we definately need our young DEs to get stronger at RDE. Both Ferrell and Crosby plays there...

Then again we need better OLB play and some fast, active S's. 

 

Our sack numbers and adjusted sack rate is still among the worst in the NFL, but at least we have that run D to build on. With the way Crosby playing and Ferrell's draft status I think it is fair to expect them back as starters, so we need to make sure we have some solid rotational rushers like Mayowa, whom I would keep. I would like to see an upgrade over Key tho.

 

I would welcome a strong starting DT next to Hankins and in front of Hurst.

I would welcome a solid rotational pass rusher DE.

I would welcome at least 2 new, quality LBs! Whitehead should be a 2 down SLB for us if we keep him. We need an every down MLB and fast cover WLB. Shop one during FA and then draft the other early. Morrow, Lee can provide depth.

I would like to see Karl back at S and I would like to see a new NCB in Joyner's place. 

Then we can hope that the young DE's take a step forward and Guenther shows that with a better roster he can be a quality DC and field an actual, solid NFL defense.  

Nice post with some good analysis. I'm definitely in the minority but I'd be ok with Lee and Morrow starting at OLB in our system but we do need a quality MLB to captain the ship on D. Burfict made a huge difference out there IMO though I dont think we keep him as the next hit he lays Roger Goodall may put on the black cap.

Paul Guenther should be given one more year I think with improved talent, part of which should be another DT, a vet DE like Mayowa and the keystone of the D at MLB - Schobert for example. I'd also like to see us add at least 1 FA corner and draft a mid round guy to develop. It seems to me that Gruden views Worley as a Charles Woodson type player that may well convert to safety. I'd bring back Joseph too, have a soft spot for him and think he sets a tone. Those 4 are good depth back there but opens us a CB spot. Joyner I've not been impressed with and we can free up the cap space if there's little dead money.

[G]

I'd like a FA on the DL, a LB and a DB before the draft. For our current system I'd focus on Clowney at DE, Campbell at LB and Peters at CB. I doubt we get all or even one of them. Dupree as a pass rusher who's improving is tempting but probably expensive with his season and could he play DE in our system. Perfect size and would be a good rotational piece with Salt and Pepper. Fowler would work as well as Ogbah or older DE's like Quinn, JPP Ansah. If we go older at DE then I wouldn't rule out a DE in the 1st but would with the younger names mentioned. A filler could be Lawson to fit the role Mayowa had this season. There really is a lot of talent on the DL as I didn't mention Yannick, Barrett or Beasley because of their size and currently it's a bigger DE model, but I wouldn't complain with them either. Ferrell and Crosby will continue to grow and improve, but injuries and sophomore slumps do happen so it's good to be vigilant because pass rushers are hard to find.

Resigning Joseph on a prove it deal works but Vonn Bell coming out could play FS or SS and had decent coverage ability so it's I'm paying too much for Joseph, I'd rather go with Bell. 

Lots of cap space and no need to splurge on the big names, but I wouldn't mind seeing an aggressive haul on the Defense before the draft so BPA and lower tier FA's filling needs after the draft. We need a lot of help/depth but were right in the fight for the playoffs as KC will have choices to make on D with Jones and Ogbah. Chargers are needing a rebuild more than reload and Denver has fools gold hopefully with Lock.