With free agency a couple of weeks away, we check in on the Raiders’ linebackers to give it a condition of either Strong, Stable, Unstable, Serious, or Critical.

Starters: Tahir Whitehead, Marquel Lee, Nicholas Morrow

Backups: Ukeme Eligwe, Quentin Poling, Te’Von Coney, Derrick Moncrief, Nick Usher

Free agents: Will Compton, Kyle Wilber, Vontaze Burfict

Calling Whitehead, Morrow, and Lee all starters may be a bit of a stretch. They’re basically all the starters if the season began today. Lee spent most of last season on the injured reserve list, and Morrow started eight games in the middle of the season before heading back to the bench.

Whitehead was the only full season starter. By the end of the season, the other two starters were Will Compton and Kyle Wilber; both of whom are headed for free agency. Even Whitehead hasn’t been all he was cracked up to be. He gets beaten a lot in coverage and isn’t all that good against the run either.

The starter in the middle at the beginning of the season was Vontaze Burfict. He made it through three games before getting booted from a game and suspended for the rest of the season — a culmination of his career of dirty hits that had yielded two previous suspensions and numerous fines.

Compton came onboard at midseason and ultimately became the most productive linebacker they had. The fact that that doesn’t say much speaks volumes about how bad this unit was last season.

None of the players above listed as backups were on the team last season.

Condition: Critical

It’s possible the Raiders could completely overhaul their linebacker unit this offseason. Whitehead could be offloaded with little dead money, they don’t seem eager to bring back Compton, and all linebacker positions are in desperate need of an upgrade. This is arguably the position on the team in most need of sweeping changes.

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