Category: Raiders buzz

Raiders midseason Ballers & Busters

The best and worst performers for the Raiders over the first half of the 2024 NFL season.

This season the Raiders’ bye week lands pretty much right in the middle of the season. Making for a good time to check in on how things are going. Which is…not too well.

Each season the Raiders like to say how close they are to things going a different way. But this season that kind of statement might just be met with either some serious side eye or just outright laughter.

That being said, the cupboard isn’t completely bare in terms of talent. So, we’ll start with those who stepped up over the first nine games before we move on to the bad news.

Ballers

TE Brock Bowers

Easily the best rookie tight end in the NFL and he has arguably been the best tight end in football, period. He leads all tight end in catches (57) and receiving yards (580) and was named a Baller four times this season as a result.

He has elite instincts, route running, and hands and excels in yards after catch. He’s even shown some decent in-line blocking abilities. Making him the Raiders most steady performer on an otherwise unsteady offense.

DE Maxx Crosby

A high ankle sprain cost him basically a couple games this season, including missing his first game ever. But he still has 6.5 sacks in the other seven games this season.

Even though he hasn’t posted a sack the past couple weeks, he’s still on pace to approach 20 sacks on the season. He has been a Baller four times so far and opened the season and his three best games were against rival Chargers and Broncos and the team’s one big win against the Ravens in Week two.

WR Jakobi Meyers

This is a ‘what have you done for me lately’ situation. Meyers has been the Top Baller each of the past two weeks for the Raiders since Davante Adams was shipped to New York and Meyers had to step up and be the guy. This included him posting his first 100-yard game a a Raider in Week 9 against the Bengals.

Continue to the Busters…

Raiders 2024 midseason Busters

Those who have had the roughest time in an ugly season for the Raiders.

Now that we’ve separated the positive performers aka the Ballers, let’s move on to those whose performances led most directly to the Raiders’ 2-7 record and their five-game losing streak.

Busters

HC Antonio Pierce, OC Luke Getsy

A head coach who preaches not riding the emotional rollercoaster but who lets every loss cause him to make unwise public statements and every week not commit to his starting quarterback. And who always seems to make the wrong decision on 4th down.

We knew these were going to be issues of his coming into the season, which is why he surrounded himself with former head coaches on his staff. But their influence has not been able to curb his worst tendencies. The team is falling apart at the seams on both sides of the ball and all we hear is the same old lines about execution and taking care of the ball.

Days before Getsy was fired, he clapped back at a question about the team’s inability to keep up the offensive success past the first scripted drive. His response was that there is no such thing as a scripted drive, even though that’s a very commonly known concept. And the Raiders have been terrible at sustaining anything past the first drive.

It seems like after that first drive, his game plan seems to consist of simply trying to do what the defense least expects. Even though the reason defense wouldn’t expect it is because it’s just a bad idea. For instance, he will call for runs when the pass has been working, and vice versa. And it has cause many drives to stall either at the doorstep of scoring range or in goal-to-go situations. And this team can ill afford to miss opportunities like that.

The previously successful run game has been an unmitigated disaster in the zone blocking scheme he implemented and the offense as a whole has looked completely lost.

LT Kolton Miller

Three times this season Kolton Miller was the Top Buster with four times a Buster overall. He just hasn’t been himself. He has given up six sacks this season, which puts him on pace for 11 sacks which would be by far his most sacks allowed since his rookie season.

QB Gardner Minshew

Speaking of guys having their worst seasons…Minshew has thrown more interceptions (8) than touchdowns (6) this seasons. There’s also been several instances where he panicked at the first sign of pressure and just bounced around inside the pocket until he was sacked.

RB Zamir White

Nothing has gone well on the ground for the Raiders. However, Alexander Mattison for outplayed White which is saying a lot. And it’s the reason Mattison ended up taking his job.

In his first season as the named starter, he has averaged just 2.9 yards per carry and has two fumbles. Despite being a strong back, he hasn’t had success in short yardage, often going down at first contact. He also has just six catches on the season.

C Andre James

Three times this season, James was a Buster. He was injured in Week eight which had rookie Jackson-Powers Johnson move over to center from left guard, and the difference was obvious. JPJ had his best game of the season and was named a Baller. Something James has not accomplished this season.

DT John Jenkins

Jenkins has done almost nothing this season. Unless you consider getting routinely pushed up field on the block as doing something. The Raiders run defense has been abhorrent this season and the door is often opened when he gets sent backward. He had 61 tackles last season and he won’t come close to that this season on his current pace. He also has yet to record a tackle for loss and has just two QB hits.

T Thayer Munford, T DJ Glaze

Between the two of them, they have five times been Busters over the first nine games. Munford started the season and held up well in the season opener. But the next week he was the Top Buster on a team that otherwise had a great game. He was injured the following week and Glaze stepped in.

In his six starts this season, Glaze has been a Buster three times, including two of the past three games.

Munford came in last week as the team’s third string left tackle and absolutely lit up, including Trey Hendrickson putting up three sacks on him. He has given up five sacks this season despite playing in just two full games.

See the Ballers

Raiders TE Brock Bowers among ESPN’s midseason Offensive Rookie of the Year frontrunners

In its midseason picks, Raiders rookie tight end Brock Bowers is in the thick of the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year race.

Raiders rookie tight end Brock Bowers has been everything Las Vegas could have asked for and then some.

The 6-foot-4, 230 pound rookie tight end out of Georgia is currently second in the NFL in receptions with 57 and leads all tight ends with 580 receiving yards. Bowers has a pair of touchdown grabs, including last week’s 22-yard touchdown reception against the Cincinnati Bengals.

During a season that is currently spiraling, Bowers has been the Raiders’ biggest bright spot.

Bowers was the Raiders’ top selection in the 2024 NFL draft. The Raiders drafted Bowers with the No. 13 overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft’s first round.

To see Bowers delivering upon and exceeding expectations is a welcome sight for the future.

As the season crosses its midway point, Bowers’ exceptional play has his name among the frontrunners to perhaps track down NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors.

ESPN’s Bill Barnwell featured Bowers among his top three in the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year chase at the season’s midway point.

Is Bowers already the league’s best receiving tight end? He leads all tight ends in receptions (57), receiving yards (580), first downs (28) and yards after the catch (300). He ranks third in yards per route run behind George Kittle and Trey McBride, which isn’t exactly bad company. About the only hole to poke in his production is a modest total of two touchdowns, although I wouldn’t pin that on him; Gardner Minshew badly overthrew an open Bowers for what should have been a touchdown that instead became Pat Surtain’s 100-yard pick-six.

It’s a historic start for a rookie tight end. The only rookies with more receiving yards through their first nine games are Mike Ditka and Kyle Pitts. No tight end has more receptions in his first nine contests. Pro Football Reference has first-down data going back through the mid-1990s, and the only rookie tight end with more first downs to begin his career is Jordan Reed, who had 29. Bowers is doing all of this as a 21-year-old. – Barnwell, ESPN.

Bowers looked like a can’t-miss prospect coming out of Georgia and that proclamation has held true.

Barnwell has Bowers No. 2 on his top three choices to capture the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award on his midseason list.

Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Brian Thomas Jr. was ranked No. 3. Meanwhile, Barnwell has Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels as his top pick to win Offensive Rookie of the Year at the midway point.

Busters for Raiders Week 9 loss to Bengals

Those who had the roughest outing in the Raiders big loss in Cincinnati.

Over a ten minute stretch from the end of the second quarter to midway through the third quarter, the Bengals left the Raiders in the dust. What was a 10-10 tie because a 31-10 Bengals lead and they pretty much never looked back. Next thing you knew it, it was a 41-17 game and coaches’ heads were rolling before the night was up.

Busters

LB Divine Deablo

Tight ends have been gouging the Raiders of late. Opponents are realizing that’s one of their weaknesses and they’re exploiting it. Mike Gesicki alone had five catches for 100 yards and two touchdowns.

Often times it was Deablo who they went after for those catches. But that wasn’t the only area Deablo struggled in this one.

The Bengals’ first drive went for a touchdown. At one point, on three consecutive plays, Deablo gave up either the catch or run for 27 yards to put them at the Vegas 33. The second TD drive came in the final three minutes of the first half and it was Deablo who gave up the TD catch from ten yards out.

First drive of the third quarter saw the Bengals drive for another TD. Deablo missed a tackle on a 21-yard run early in the drive, then in first and goal at the seven, he was out of position on a five yard run, and two plays later gave up another touchdown catch.

LB Robert Spillane

Kudos to him for playing through his injury, but he doesn’t look right out there. Just like last week, he’s still making some tackles. They’re just several yards down the field. And he’s having more troubling fighting through blocks and cutting quickly.

The Bengals’ second scoring drive, he gave up the two biggest plays on the drive — an 18-yard catch and a 12-yard catch and run where he missed the tackle. Then the first play of the third quarter, he had Joe Burrow dead to rights on the blitz and missed the tackle to give up an 11-yard scramble instead.

He finished with seven combine tackles, which was his second lowest total of the season and had just one solo tackle.

WR DJ Turner

Even with the Bengals scoring to end the first half and to begin the third quarter, it was still a two-score game. Then Turner lined up in the backfield to take the handoff and fumbled it. The Bengals recovered it at the Vegas 21 and drive for another touchdown. Dagger.

T Thayer Munford

What Troy Hendrickson did to him in this game was sickening. Henderickson finished the game with a single game career -high four sacks. And three of those came from the left side while Munford was in the game.

It may be considered cruel to call Munford out considering he was pressed into left tackle duties after Kolton Miller and Andrus Peat both went down with injuries. But, I am not here to give consideration to such things. He got embarrassed in this one. Enough so that you realize why he is the third string left tackle and not the primary backup. We’re talking about the season opening starting right tackle here too.

HC Antonio Pierce, OC Luke Getsy, DC Patrick Graham

No coach is safe from criticism here. And not just because it was a bad game and we’re spreading around blame liberally. But because they each had their very specific issues.

The offense once again dried up after the opening drive. Just a few days after Getsy took exception to the term “scripted drive”. And probably about the time the Raiders plane landed in Vegas, he was no long employed by them.

Even still, the Raiders were down just one score in the final seconds of the first half and driving. But in third and four from the 48, after Getsy called a doomed screen, they are in prime position to go for it on fourth down. Just 17 seconds left and about five yards away from Daniel Carlson field goal range. Instead Pierce showed no aggressive and a complete lack of faith in his offense and his defense by sending out the punt team. There was nothing to gain from that decision and almost everything to lose.

If you are worried you won’t make it and the Bengals would drive into field goal range, then you think they can just easily to that anyway, so what’s even the point? Otherwise, you just go down fighting. You don’t give up. Before halftime, the Raiders gave up.

As for Graham and this defense…the Bengals scored on every one of their first five possessions; four of which were touchdowns. And far too many times, there were wide open receivers. Whether it be backs squirting out of the backfield with no one around, tight ends finding huge soft spots in the zone, or running backs finding gaping holes for chunk plays. This defense is a shell of what it looked like when it found inspiration late last season.

See the Ballers

Ballers for Raiders Week 9 loss to Bengals

Picking out the individual performances in the Raiders loss to the Bengals in Week 9.

Another early strong effort eventually crumbled and got away from the Raiders just as has happened so many times this season. And ultimately the game was over by midway through the third quarter.

Before that happened, however, there were some positive performances to mention.

Ballers

WR Jakobi Meyers

Believe it or not, Meyers surpassed 100 yards receiving for the first time as a Raider. Hard to believe considering how much he has meant to this team since they signed him prior to last season.

He got things started with the longest play on the Raiders opening drive, catching a 22-yard pass to put them at the Cincinnati 23. They went on to score an opening drive touchdown.

The next drive, he led out with a 15-yard grab to the Cincy 49 and then had the longest catch again, going for 23 yards on a slant to put the Raiders in field goal range at the 26. From there they tied it up at 10-10. Meyers would add two more catches for 22 yards on the Raiders final drive of the first half that nearly got them into scoring range again.

C Jackson Powers-Johnson, G Jordan Meredith

These two were doing some serious work on the Raiders opening drive. The Raiders run game actually looked proficient and it was because of these two pushing defenders around. They ran the ball seven times on the opening drive. The three longest ones either JPJ, Meredith or both laid key blocks. And JPJ opened up the hole one what was initially ruled a TD (and probably should have stood) on first and goal.

Funny thing is, the only reason either of these two are playing the positions they’re playing is because of injuries. But they are earning the right to keep those jobs.

CB Jack Jones

Early in the fourth quarter, he had a pick six to make the game a bit interesting late. Then he ended the next Bengals possession with a pass breakup on third down.

Continue to the Busters…

Antonio Pierce won’t commit to Raiders starting QB heading into bye week

Is Gardner Minshew still the Raiders starting QB or will he be replaced by Desmond Ridder? Antonio Pierce isn’t ready to make that decision.

Here we go again. Back to the Raiders being in limbo at the QB position. In the third quarter of Sunday’s game, looking at a 31-10 deficit, the Raiders pulled starter Gardner Minshew in favor of Desmond Ridder.

At the time, you could write it off as the Raiders just being down three scores and just pulling their starter. But if that were the case, Monday morning you’d expect to hear the head coach commit to Minshew as the starter. He didn’t do that.

“I’m using the bye week to look at everything.” Pierce said in response to a question about the team’s starting quarterback.

This controversy at the QB position has been going on almost weekly dating back to the beginning of the offseason.

First it was Aidan O’Connell taking all the first team reps. Then by minicamp, Minshew started getting some first team reps. By camp they shared first team reps equally. It wasn’t until two weeks prior to the start of the season that Pierce named Minshew the starter. And even then, he made it clear he wasn’t confident in his choice, saying he would give Minshew the first quarter of the season and re-evaluate at that time.

Just a week after Minshew led a come-from-behind win in Baltimore, struggles at home against the Panthers had Pierce putting in O’Connell late in the game and already waffling on Minshew as the starter.

Two weeks later, he made the switch, benching Minshew in favor of O’Connell. Then in just his second start, O’Connell left with a thumb injury and Minshew was back in as the starter.

The next day the team signed Desmond Ridder off the Cardinals practice squad and Sunday, after just two weeks with the team, he was in the game for Minshew.

Now, Pierce is saying he is using the coming week to decide whether Ridder will be the team’s starter or not. And you can bet, even if Ridder isn’t named the starter this week, the question will come up every single week if Minshew struggles.

Antonio Pierce talks what went wrong with Raiders offense, what he’s looking for in new OC

Antonio Pierce had a lot to say about the many issues on the Raiders offense that led to Luke Getsy’s firing and what he wants in the new OC.

After five straight losses leading to a 2-7 record this season, the Raiders have taken drastic action. Sunday night they fired OC Luke Getsy after just nine game with the team and also let go of two other members of the offensive staff.

While as of Monday morning, Antonio Pierce was not ready to name a replacement, he did going into what he thinks went wrong that led to the firing and what he’s looking for in the next offensive play caller.

Let’s start with what went wrong.

“When I look at the last nine weeks, I just look at a bunch of things,” said Pierce. “I’ll just start with turnovers. I don’t care what team you are, who you have at quarterback, who’s your head coach, who’s your OC, you’re not going to win games when you turn the ball over at the rate we’ve been turning the ball over pretty much three times a game. Especially 13 in the last five.

“I think we’ve had enough opportunities to punch the ball in, to give our team an opportunity to win games and we haven’t done that. And that’s really a compilation of everything. That goes from play caller to the play of our players to execution to details to the confidence that we’re playing with.

“A lot of those things factor into it. Some of it is shocking. Because I think when we left training camp we felt good about this group and our team. Obviously we did get hit with injuries, but that’s no excuse because every team in the league is dealing with that as well. But I think offensively it just wasn’t going the way I wanted it to go and it didn’t look the way I wanted it to look.”

It’s honestly strange for Pierce to suggest they felt good about how the offense looked coming out of camp considering he never got what he wanted which was one of the two quarterback to step up and say ‘I’m the guy‘. He himself said he was giving Gardner Minshew the first quarter of the season to keep the job and then benched him after five games.

As to the other issues, yeah, much of that falls on the OC. The run game issues in particular, which were the reasons for the missed opportunities like happened in the loss to the Chiefs last week.

As for what he’s looking for in a new OC.

“Matching the philosophy and the idea of what I preach which is physicality, ability to run the ball, taking shots down the field, protecting the football first and foremost, disciplined up front,” Pierce added.

“We got to do what’s best and gives us the best opportunity to win. Whatever that may be. If it’s throwing the ball 60 times, fine. If it’s running it 60 times, fine. But we got to find a balance and an identity on offense going forward.”

This strikes at the heart of the complaints against Getsy’s approach. How it seemed like his decisions were based too much around trying to do what the defense didn’t expect as opposed to sticking with what worked. In consecutive games this season against the Rams and Chiefs, at the most critical times, he abandoned what was working in favor of what was not and it killed the Raiders chance of punching it in for the score.

So, the moral here seems to be that many of the Raiders issues don’t fall on Getsy and thus it seems unlikely this change is going to miraculously make things better. But enough of it was Getsy that a change needed to be made if this team is at least able to capitalize on their opportunities and not fall flat each time.

Jakobi Meyers does something he’d never done with Raiders

For the first time in a Raiders uniform, Jakobi Meyers had over 100 yards receiving.

Perhaps lost in the shuffle in Sunday’s loss to the Bengals was a Raiders career first for Jakobi Meyers. Midway through his second season with the Raiders, Meyers surpassed 100 yards in a game for the first time in a Raiders uniform.

Sunday in Cincinnati, Meyers reached 105 yards on eight catches, marking his first time past the century mark in a single game in Silver & Black.

His eight catches were his second most in a Raiders uniform. His 11 targets were the third most as a Raider.

That may be hard to believe, but in his first 22 games the most yards Meyers had compiled in a game was 85 yards, which he put up early last year against the Steelers. As it happens, now both of his highest yardage games were losses. So, Meyers likely isn’t feeling much like celebrating.

Thrice in his four season in New England Meyers surpassed 100 yards in a game. And six times he had eight catches or more.

With assist from old pal, Raiders now have no one-win teams ahead of them in draft order

A slew of two-win teams now battle for the top of the draft order now with both one-win teams win Sunday.

The Raiders badly need a win. They didn’t get one on their own on Sunday against the Bengals, losing their fifth straight game to fall to 2-7 on the season. But they got a win of sorts in another way. And they got it with a little help from an old friend.

Coming into today, there were two one-win teams in the league — the Panthers and Titans. Both teams won, which means every team in the NFL has at least two wins.

The Titans outlasted the Patriots in OT while Derek Carr and the Saints gave the Panthers their second win.

The former Raiders QB made some history in the process. A couple bits of history, in fact. Neither of which were the good kind.

Carr went 18 for 31 for 236 yards and a touchdown. He got 155 yards on the ground from Alvin Kamara, a rushing TD from Tayson Hill, and the defense had a takeaway. And he somehow couldn’t parlay into a win.

So, the Raiders — and several other two-win teams across the league — thank you for your service and sacrifice, Derek, in removing the Panthers from the ranks of the one-win teams and opening it up for the slew of two-win teams to control their own destiny for the top pick. Which, as it happens, also includes the 2-7 Saints.

Raiders looking to ‘get Zamir (White) going’ in run game

Could we see former Raiders starter Zamir White get more carries week 9 vs the Bengals?

At the end of last season, the Raiders really thought they had something in Zamir White. He came in for an injured Josh Jacobs and had some great looking performances over the final four games.

My response was simply to slow down a bit on the talk of him making Jacobs expendable. If for no other reason than what we saw was a running back who was completely fresh come in and face worn down defenses down the stretch. I wanted to see how he performed against fresh defenses and how he held up over a full NFL season.

Well, we didn’t have to wait a full season to see White struggle to get things going in 2024. He fumbled twice in four games with no touchdowns while averaging 3.1 yards per carry. The team then switched to Alexander Mattison as the starter.

White missed a couple games with injury, but has been back the past couple weeks. Meanwhile the run game has been inconsistent, including this past Sunday when the Raiders running backs averaged less than a yard per carry.

“I think [Alexander] Mattison’s still the starter, but we got to get Zamir [White] going,” Antonio Pierce said. “I mean, Zamir, I hate to keep referring, but last year we saw a lot of positive stuff from Zamir and seen a little bit of it earlier in this season. I think he’s just got to get out of the funk as well. I know those fumbles early on really got to him, then he had the injury, but it’s always good when we got him going downhill. I mean, he’s a big gentleman who’s physical, and obviously, I don’t think you ever see one running back in. You look at the whole league and everybody’s using two backs.”

The Chiefs loss was Mattison’s roughest outing of the season. He averaged 1.1 yards per carry and failed to get into the end zone despite four tries from inside the five. So, naturally the discussion has turned to whether White can help get things going.

The problem is, no matter how Mattison has looked this season — some good, some bad, depending on the opponent — White has always looked worse.

Now, maybe White’s had enough rest the past few weeks that he can provide a boost with fresh legs. It’s worth a shot. Got to try everything in your arsenal, rigtht?