Finding the best five defensive backs has not been easy for the Raiders this season. Injuries to starting safeties Johnathan Abram and Karl Joseph and struggles from Gareon Conley leading to his trade were the primary issues. Then the team went and cut DJ Swearinger leading to a self-imposed weak spot.
Defensive coordinator Paul Guenther decided it would be Daryl Worley who would fill in at safety. That plan was upended last week against the Jaguars with Worley suffering a neck injury and missing the game.
He returned this week against the Chargers and started at safety just as Guenther had hoped. What Guenther hadn’t planned for was starting corner Trayvon Mullen and nickel corner Lamarcus Joyner both missing snaps with injury. Suddenly Worley’s duties increased tremendously.
“Daryl Worley played four positions,” said Jon Gruden after the win over the Chargers Sunday.
“I can’t say enough about what Worley did today. He was out, didn’t play last week, we asked him to move to Safety, all our Corners got hurt so we asked him to go play nickel, then our nickel got hurt and we said go play Corner.”
Worley barely left the field Sunday. He saw 59 snaps (97%) in the game while bouncing around the defensive backfield on the fly.
He gets a lot of flak from Raiders fans who are understandably frustrated about the play of the Raiders secondary this season. But he is a valuable part of the team and probably doesn’t get enough credit for the work he does both in coverage and as a tackler.
| Offense | Defense | Special Teams | ||||
| Player | Num | Pct | Num | Pct | Num | Pct |
| Kolton Miller | 63 | 100% | 0 | 0% | 4 | 15% |
| Denzelle Good | 63 | 100% | 0 | 0% | 4 | 15% |
| Gabe Jackson | 63 | 100% | 0 | 0% | 3 | 11% |
| Derek Carr | 63 | 100% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
| Rodney Hudson | 63 | 100% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
| Tyrell Williams | 55 | 87% | 0 | 0% | 1 | 4% |
| Darren Waller | 51 | 81% | 0 | 0% | 1 | 4% |
| David Sharpe | 49 | 78% | 0 | 0% | 4 | 15% |
| DeAndre Washington | 40 | 63% | 0 | 0% | 2 | 7% |
| Zay Jones | 33 | 52% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
| Hunter Renfrow | 29 | 46% | 0 | 0% | 5 | 19% |
| Alec Ingold | 24 | 38% | 0 | 0% | 14 | 52% |
| Jalen Richard | 24 | 38% | 0 | 0% | 3 | 11% |
| Brandon Parker | 20 | 32% | 0 | 0% | 4 | 15% |
| Eric Tomlinson | 19 | 30% | 0 | 0% | 4 | 15% |
| Derek Carrier | 18 | 29% | 0 | 0% | 24 | 89% |
| Rico Gafford | 10 | 16% | 0 | 0% | 1 | 4% |
| Marcell Ateman | 6 | 10% | 0 | 0% | 3 | 11% |
| Erik Harris | 0 | 0% | 61 | 100% | 11 | 41% |
| William Compton | 0 | 0% | 61 | 100% | 8 | 30% |
| Daryl Worley | 0 | 0% | 59 | 97% | 0 | 0% |
| Nevin Lawson | 0 | 0% | 57 | 93% | 15 | 56% |
| Maxx Crosby | 0 | 0% | 49 | 80% | 9 | 33% |
| Trayvon Mullen | 0 | 0% | 49 | 80% | 5 | 19% |
| Maurice Hurst | 0 | 0% | 40 | 66% | 3 | 11% |
| Tahir Whitehead | 0 | 0% | 37 | 61% | 0 | 0% |
| Dion Jordan | 0 | 0% | 31 | 51% | 9 | 33% |
| Lamarcus Joyner | 0 | 0% | 31 | 51% | 0 | 0% |
| P.J. Hall | 0 | 0% | 31 | 51% | 0 | 0% |
| Keisean Nixon | 0 | 0% | 30 | 49% | 19 | 70% |
| Johnathan Hankins | 0 | 0% | 30 | 49% | 3 | 11% |
| Clelin Ferrell | 0 | 0% | 30 | 49% | 3 | 11% |
| Benson Mayowa | 0 | 0% | 23 | 38% | 0 | 0% |
| Curtis Riley | 0 | 0% | 19 | 31% | 19 | 70% |
| Nicholas Morrow | 0 | 0% | 15 | 25% | 17 | 63% |
| Josh Mauro | 0 | 0% | 12 | 20% | 3 | 11% |
| Kyle Wilber | 0 | 0% | 5 | 8% | 22 | 81% |
| Dallin Leavitt | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 20 | 74% |
| Rod Smith | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 13 | 48% |
| Trent Sieg | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 9 | 33% |
| Nick Nelson | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 9 | 33% |
| A.J. Cole | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 9 | 33% |
| Daniel Carlson | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 9 | 33% |
| Andre James | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 4 | 15% |
| Lester Cotton | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 1 | 4 |
[vertical-gallery id=59928]
[lawrence-newsletter]