One of the best additions the Raiders made this offseason was bringing in veteran defensive coordinator Gus Bradley. The team fired Paul Guenther during the middle of the 2020 season as his defense just wasn’t good enough to compete with the best teams in the AFC.
Bradley has a ton of experience coaching good defenses in Seattle, Jacksonville and Los Angeles and is bringing his traditional 4-3 Cover-3 defense to Las Vegas. Through a few weeks of practices and OTAs, his presence is already being felt.
In a recent article by Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report, he says that the biggest question surrounding the Raiders is their defense. But with Bradley in charge, the defense appears to be on the right track. Here is what he had to say about the veteran defensive coordinator:
“We won’t be able to draw too many conclusions about Bradley’s new defense in Vegas before the regular season starts, but we should get a pretty good feel for what he’ll look to do with his former Jags pupil, Yannick Ngakoue, as well as youngsters Clelin Ferrell, Maxx Crosby, Damon Arnette, Johnathan Abram and rookie second-round pick Tre’von Moehrig.
Bradley’s got plenty of talent to work with, and if he can get that unit moving in the right direction in July and August, the entire team could have a shot at its first playoff run of the latest Jon Gruden era come fall and winter.”
If the defense can be even respectful in 2021, this is a team that could easily make the playoffs. We know how talented the offense is, but it’s the defense that held this team back in big games. But with Gus Bradley in charge, don’t expect that to be the case.
It’s going to take a while for Bradley to implement his scheme, but this is a much more talented roster than what we saw at this time last year. It’s also a better scheme that fits the personnel on defense. Look for this defense to be significantly better in 2021, mostly due to Bradley.
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