To say the Raiders have struggled on the defensive side of the ball in the previous decade is a bit of an understatement. From 2010-2019, the team never finished higher than 20th in points per game allowed and often finished in the bottom five in the league in scoring defense.
In a recent piece by ESPN, the named the Raiders the worst defense of the decade as they allowed an average of 26.2 points per game during that period. Take a look at ESPN’s thoughts on the Raiders’ defense over the previous ten seasons:
Continuity is key, and the Raiders had very little on defense in the 2010s. Hey, six different defensive coordinators in the decade does not exactly signify stability, from John Marshall to Chuck Bresnahan to Jason Tarver to Ken Norton Jr. to John Pagano to Paul Guenther. And that’s not counting a pair of heavy-handed, defensive-minded head coaches in Dennis Allen and Jack Del Rio. The Raiders have rebuilt their linebacker corps and secondary to enter the ’20s. The focus is solely on Guenther, whose defenses are responsible for two of the eight worst single-season defensive efficiency seasons of the past decade.
If the Raiders want to get back to being a playoff contender in the AFC, they have to improve their defense. Luckily, Mike Mayock and Jon Gruden have done a great job of bringing in talent over the last two seasons and the hope is that players like Maxx Crosby, Clelin Ferrell and Trayvon Mullen can reshape the unit.
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