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#10 Safeties – Las Vegas Raiders
So, let’s just quickly talk about how the Raiders used their group of safeties last season. Jonathan Abram led the position with 78.6% of snaps as their boundary/strong safety. Erik Harris at two-thirds was a field-side guy, and Lamarcus Joyner with a little less than that was their starting nickel.
Moreover. they had Jeff Heath as a combo-guy, who filled in at either safety spot. Paul Guenther used a lot of quarters coverage last season, as they tried to keep everything in front of them. But Abram made several mistakes and has been a disappointment as a coverage defender altogether.
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As ferocious as he may be in filling the alley and getting involved as a Blitzer against the run, I wouldn’t call any of these other guys real playmakers, though. So with Gus Bradley coming in as Las Vegas’ new DC and having evolved from his Seattle days, the team clearly focused on adding rangy back-end defenders and being more diverse in that regard.
Firstly, they brought back their former first-round pick, Karl Joseph, who did a year of growing in Cleveland and could be deployed closer to the line of scrimmage. Then they went to the draft and got the no. 1 safety on most people’s boards in TCU’s Trevon Moehrig, who excelled in a very complex defense.
They used many split-safety looks, but he did show the ability to cover a lot of ground when rotated into the middle. Then in the fourth round, they brought in two of my favorites in Missouri’s Tyree Gillespie, who finds a mention here, as he had no interceptions in college and was a super-consistent free safety in the SEC for years.
He could possibly be paired up with Moehrig in an interchangeable capacity and change the picture post-snap. Then there is Virginia Tech’s Divine Deablo, who has surprising range for a 225-pounder but presents the most intrigue as a tight-end eraser and dime backer.
Notable Mentions: Jacksonville Jaguars (Andre Cisco, Rayshawn Jenkins and Rudy Ford).
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