After a rough rookie debut in which he allowed a perfect passer rating, rookie cornerback Damon Arnette bounced back against the New Orleans Saints. While Michael Thomas didn’t play, Arnette was forced to cover the likes of Emmanuel Sanders and Tre’Quan Smith.
In a recent article by Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus, the site wrote about the performance of every first-round pick from the 2020 NFL Draft. They were impressed by Arnette’s play as they were complimentary of his game against the Saints:
“Arnette was thrown at four times, and though he gave up a catch every time, those receptions went for just 41 yards and brought up a first down only 50% of the time.
A missed tackle didn’t help his overall grade, but this was still a solid outing against a team that is making things unusually easy for opposing defenses through two games.”
With his bad game against Robby Andersin in Week 1, it would have been easy for Arnette to lose confidence. But after not allowing anything deep against the Saints and forcing Drew Brees to take underneath completions, Arnette did exactly what Paul Guenther’s defense is designed to do; bend, but don’t break.
As the season goes on, expect Arnette to play with even more confidence as he gets comfortable in the defense. With elite passing attacks on the schedule such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs, the Raiders are going to need Arnette to play at a high level.
The Raiders know that Arnette isn’t going to be perfect and there will be times he struggles. However, what they want to see is improvement. And that is exactly what Arnette showed in Week 2.
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