Though the Raiders aren’t technically out of contention for the playoffs, they are a long shot at this point. The loss to the Titans last week was viewed as a real backbreaker. It was their third straight loss, all by wide margins, and it dropped them to 6-7 on the season.
Their situation leaves them with a bit of a dilemma; do they take these last few games to see what they have in some of their young talent, or do whatever they can to win?
In some cases, they have no choice. In some others, the youth on the team may give them their best shot at winning. And in other instances, it means deciding between having a banged-up player take the field or letting them heal up.
One thing you can say about this situation is that it’s at least a question in the final quarter of the season instead of halfway through as was the case last year. With the Raiders last year it was also a lot easier decision. They weren’t winning much with who they had in the lineup, so why not try out someone else?
The secondary is the first area that comes to mind right now. It looks like Sunday they will field a completely different starting four defensive backs than they had for the season opener. Johnathan Abram is on IR, so is Karl Joseph, cornerback Gareon Conley was traded away, and Daryl Worley is considered ‘very questionable’ to play Sunday.
It was after Aaron Rodgers and the Packers completely outclassed them that Conley was traded, giving way to second-round rookie Trayvon Mullen stepping into a starting role.
The loss of Joseph initially had the team add free-agent safety DJ Swearinger. He was cut this week with the hopes of shifting Worley over from his corner position. Now Worley may not go with a neck injury, leaving the Raiders to consider some youth at both safety and cornerback.
“D.J. was a good guy. He tried hard, he studied hard, he was a good teammate,” said defensive coordinator Paul Guenther., “but we just felt like we had some guys on our team that needed a chance to see what they can do. You know Dallin Leavitt, Curtis Riley, Worley at some spots, Isaiah Johnson. We’ve got to get him going. So, there’s some younger guys we invested in in the draft that we have to see them develop and play and see what they can do on Sunday’s for us.”
Nevin Lawson is the veteran at the cornerback position so he would seem to be the top option at the position, but if the team does go for youth, we could be looking at rookies at both corner spots. Obviously Mullen is on one side, but two potential options at the other spot are undrafted rookie Keisean Nixon and 4th rounder Isaiah Johnson. They also called up second-year cornerback Nick Nelson from the practice squad.
At safety, there seems a high likelihood that Dallin Leavitt, who joined the team as an undrafted rookie out of Utah State in 2018, would step up as the starter. Leavitt has played a grand total of ONE snap on defense at the NFL level. He has appeared in 14 games on special teams.
“Dallin’s a good player. I mean he can play,” Guenther continued. “I don’t view him as just a special teams guy, at least on the defense. When he gets his opportunity just like anything like Trayvon [Mullen], some of the other rookies, Maxx [Crosby], those guys, when they get their opportunities to play, they’ve got to make the most of it. If he gets an opportunity this week to play, hopefully he does good and makes the most of his opportunities.”
With rookies at both starting defensive end spots and two second-year players in the defensive tackle rotation, the defensive line is already quite a young group. They’d have to decide whether to go with veterans Tahir Whitehead and Will Compton at linebacker or with third-year players Marquel Lee and Nicholas Morrow. That would have their entire defense at 24 or younger. And can you honestly say their chances would be any less with that lineup than the usual lineup?
On offense, wide receiver has been the primary revolving door. Number one receiver, Tyrell Williams has been dealing with a nagging foot injury all season.
“Plantar fasciitis, it’s a pretty significant injury, but he’s battling through it,” Offensive coordinator Greg Olson said of Williams. “He’s taking medication before every game trying to manage the pain, but certainly every week that’s something he’s had to deal with.”
Jon Gruden has admired that Williams has been fighting through the injury, but if he considered sitting him, the rest of the group is quite young. Zay Jones is somehow the veteran of the group and he’s still just 24. Then there’s undrafted rookie Keelan Doss and second-year players Rico Gafford and Marcell Ateman. Rookie Hunter Renfrow is out with an injured rib at the moment, but he could return next week.
That position has been in the ‘throw shit at the wall to see what sticks’ phase all season. As yet, nothing has, so it certainly can’t hurt to keep at it.
The offensive line is mostly a veteran group, but if Trent Brown sits again this week with his injured pectoral muscle, the Raiders once again start the same tackle duo that started as rookies last season in LT Kolton Miller and RT Brandon Parker. Miller has improved greatly this season. Parker still has serious issues and they don’t know what they have in him yet.
Gruden said he is not interested in just trying out new players and focusing on the future. He’s only interested in winning the next game. This next one especially because it’s the last game ever in Oakland.
Of course he said that last year too, and it was obvious by midseason that the Raiders had put development ahead of winning games (as they should have, but no one is going to tell the fans they aren’t trying to win first and foremost).
The final three weeks of the season will feature three losing teams on the docket. Sunday it’s the 4-9 Jaguars at home, then it’s the 5-8 Chargers in LA, and finally the 5-8 Broncos in Denver. Obviously those are all very winnable games, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that they could develop some of these young players and still be competitive. It can’t get any worse than the past three weeks, right? . . . Right??
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