Sin City Raiders

It’s morning again, Raider Nation. We have survived another long off-season without football and now we’re counting down the days until training camp and preseason. With the Las Vegas Raiders about to open camp, how about a breakdown of the Silver and Black’s strengths, weaknesses and some realistic expectations for the upcoming season.

In this writing, we’ll look at the strongest position groups on the team.

Defensive Line

The strongest position group on this team is their defensive line. This group is led by Defensive Player of the Year candidate Maxx Crosby, coming off a career high in sacks with 14.5. Since being a fourth-round pick of the Oakland Raiders in 2019 (their last draft class in Oakland), he has established himself as as star in this league and has regularly drawn double-teams from opposing offenses. We’ve thought to ourselves “imagine if they gave this guy some help.”

Well, at long last he has gotten some help. The Raiders used their first-round pick a year ago on Tyree Wilson with the plan being for him top help out Crosby, but things didn’t exactly go according to plan. Instead, we saw Malcolm Koonce go from a 2021 third-round pick who had zero sacks in 2022, to serving as Crosby’s partner in pass-rushing as he racked up eight sacks from the opposite end of Crosby. As for Wilson, he left a lot to be desired as a rookie.

Although Wilson had a rookie season that saw him record just 3.5 sacks, he came into the league with an injured foot that limited his off-season and training camp. A lot has changed in the last calendar year. Wilson is entering his second camp with much more size and a clean bill of health. Also, like his teammates, he showed improvement after Antonio Pierce took over as head coach. With a different coach, the Raiders showed different looks with Wilson that included lining him up at tackle on passing downs; reminiscent of the New York Giants’ “NASCAR” line that Pierce won a Super Bowl with.

Speaking of lining up guys at tackle, the Raiders went out and signed Christian Wilkins in one of the first moves of free agency. The big man is coming off a career-high with nine sacks. There have been some voices of concern noting that his sack total from last season is double his previous high (4.5 sacks in 2021) and that he might not replicate his 2023 totals. But you know what? That is okay for the Raiders. Wilkins doesn’t need double-digit sacks to make an impact, but it would be nice. His presence alongside Crosby, Koonce and Wilson will force offensive lines into difficult decisions on Sunday and between all of them, someone will be getting to the quarterback.

Tight Ends

Behind their defensive line, this is the next strongest group for the Silver and Black. Not for how they looked last year, but for how they could look this year.

In 2023, the Raiders drafted Michael Mayer out of Notre Dame. He was seen as one of the best tight ends in his draft class and he left college as the Fighting Irish all-time leader in receptions for his position. As a rookie in the NFL, he struggled learning a new offense, going through three different quarterbacks, a coaching change and last but not least, injuries ending his season early.

In 2024 with a new front office, the Raiders again drafted a tight end. This time in the first round. And this time not just one of the best in his class, but a prospect seen as a potential generational talent.

Brock Bowers tore up the college ranks with two John Mackey awards and won two championships with Georgia. We haven’t seen him step on an NFL field yet, but all the highlights we have seen of Bowers has to fire up Raider Nation for what he could do wearing the Silver and Black.

Mayer going into his second season and Bowers owning the raw potential that he has could team up to give the Raiders the league’s best tight end room. And when you look around the NFL and see championship contenders like the Baltimore Ravens, the (hate to say it) Kansas City Chiefs and the (also hate to say this) San Francisco 49ers they all have at least this one thing in common: They have dominant tight ends.

Now I’m not getting ahead of myself. It will take more than an elite tight end to put the Raiders into the Super Bowl. But, it doesn’t hurt to stock up and create matchup nightmares for opposing defenses.

Wide Receiver

Along with the tight ends, this group will help make life easier for whoever the Raiders decide their quarterback will be this season.

The group is led by future Hall of Famer Davante Adams. Despite playing with three different quarterbacks and the frustration that we saw in the Netflix series “Receiver”, DA17 still managed to catch three more passes than he did in 2022 even if his yards did drop. With his reputation, expect to see defenses focus on Adams until he gives them a reason not to. While defenses focus on him, the Raiders have other threats at receiver.

Opposite site Adams is Jakobi Meyers. The former Patriot showed promise in his first year as a Raider. He caught 71 passes for over 800 yards and eight touchdowns while playing with the three aforementioned quarterbacks. Meyers even took the quarterback situation into his own hands by throwing a touchdown pass to Adams and added another two rushing touchdowns.

And for a franchise with the history that the Raiders have at receiver, the honorary deep threat of the group is second-year player Tre Tucker. As a rookie, he caught only 19 passes out of only 34 targets, but averaged 17.4 yards per reception. With improved quarterback play and his own personal growth going into Year 2, Tucker’s numbers should be expected to rise and he’ll likely have more opportunities to make the big play.

Left Tackle-Right Guard

The offensive line in the desert is often under-appreciated around the NFL. I’ll admit that way back in the 2018 draft, I was unsure about using a first-round pick on Kolton Miller. But he has proved me wrong and has been a rare success story as far as first-round picks go for this franchise in this millennium. Through all the turbulence the Raiders have had since then, Miller has been a point of stability as one of the better protectors of the blind side in the league.

Another point of stability has been at center with Andre James. The center has a few things in common with Miller. They were both left tackles at UCLA before coming to the Raiders, where they are the two longest-tenured offensive linemen. James was rewarded by his work under the old regime by being given a contract extension by the new front office. Familiarity between teammates can go a long way in the trenches and the Raiders are fortunate to keep their left tackle and center of years past going forward.

The two guard positions are less stable than left tackle and center, but still look promising enough to list them as strengths.

On the right side, the Raiders will start Dylan Parham. Although he has been their starting left guard for two years, he will move to accommodate this year’s second-round pick; Jackson Powers-Johnson. Personally, I haven’t been as excited for a rookie offensive lineman since the Silver and Black used a second-round pick in 2011 on Stefen Wisniewski. Like fellow draft classmate Brock Bowers, JPJ won his positional award in college (the Rimington award for best center) and has a clear path to playing immediately. If Parham can handle the switch and JPJ can be the force he was in college, the Raiders offensive line will be a strength.

Honorable Mention

While I believe that the aforementioned groups are the team’s strongest units, there are other individuals who deserve to be mentioned as strengths for the Raiders.

With a defense that was as good as the Raiders had last year, there is plenty of credit to go around. From Antonio Pierce and Patrick Graham on the sideline, to the 11 players on the field. Given that the line was given their shoutout earlier, I want to single out Robert Spillane and Jack Jones as other standouts on what became the best defense Raider Nation has seen since, well, I can’t remember.

Jones’ Christmas Day pick-6 against Patrick Mahomes will be a cherished highlight for Raider fans for a long time, but it was his play throughout the season (once being claimed off waivers) that earned him the title of No. 1 cornerback. He’ll be joined by nickel-corner Nate Hobbs who has quietly become a good young player for this defense. However, the glaring hole at the outside spot opposite Jones keeps the corners from being listed as a strength.

The team’s safeties are also on the cusp of being a strength, but aren’t quite there yet. Putting the entire defense together for a moment, the Raiders pulled in just 13 interceptions (17th in the league) and broke up only 51 passes (ranking last in the NFL). The defensive backs need to do more, and imagine how good this defense will be if they do.