After spending most of the preseason trying to decide who would be the Las Vegas Raiders starting quarterback, head coach Antonio Pierce has another headscratcher. There’s no doubt about who the Las Vegas Raiders have as their No. 1 and slot cornerbacks; it’s Jack Jones and Nate Hobbs. After that on the cornerback depth chart, the picture is more cloudy. Head coach Antonio Pierce said as much when assessing the team’s depth chart and how they’ll proceed with cut-down day looming, according to a tweet from ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez.
#Raiders coach Antonio Pierce, on depth of CB room: "It's still a work in progress." Translation – expect Raiders to be active on waiver wire after cuts.
— Paul Gutierrez (@PGutierrezESPN) August 24, 2024
For those closely following this franchise, this isn’t news. Since the start of the Raiders training camp, one of the most discussed position battles was along the cornerback depth chart. The three most common names have been 2023 fourth-round pick Jakorian Bennett, veteran Brandon Facyson and 2024 fourth-rounder Decamerion Richardson out of Mississippi State. In limited playing time, Bennett was given a 42.4 PFF grade last year, and Facyson didn’t fare much better with a 51.7 grade, although he did miss most of the season and spent most of the season on injured reserve.
Bennett is the favorite to win the job, but he has not done enough to establish his own identity in the position.
The Raiders lack defensive identity and need a cornerback to step up
Lots of NFL head coaches are gurus. They’re the flashy offensive coordinator with the dazzling prowess to score points. They finally get their shot to come out from behind the clipboard. The gritty, tough-as-nails defensive coordinators devised that scheme to stop the flashy offensive coordinators. That’s not Pierce. He’s a former player, not to diminish his knowledge or coaching ability.
This is OC Luke Getsy’s first season in this position. Patrick Graham is entering Year 3 as the team’s DC, and he’s been all over the league since 2009. The point here is that this team doesn’t have that media-driven narrative where a savant in the facility will out-schedule the opponents. Pierce and Co. have to want it bad enough and encourage their players to make every opportunity count, as his quote via Michael Canelo of Raiders on SI.
“And I told these guys they got a great opportunity for themselves. Competing for the roster spot, and really, it’s not just for the Raiders. It is the entire National Football League. Because we know that we are not going to have everybody on the roster. There will be other opportunities on practice squad or other teams. So, they are competing in front of everyone, and this is a big week for them. And I think it is critical for some of the guys that we are going to play, that might have two or three years in the league as well, to prove that they can take that next step because we got to keep continue to build depth within this team to have the team we want.”
The Raiders drafted two cornerbacks, Richardson and seventh-rounder M.J. Devonshire, this year; both will be needed to step up.
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