The Raiders made one of the biggest splashes of the offseason, sending first- and second-round picks to the Packers for Davante Adams. Nothing wrong with that move, but it's in the minority for the Las Vegas offseason. Most of the transactions are going the other way.
Wide receiver Zay Jones signed with Jacksonville, fullback Alec Ingold signed with Miami, and backup quarterback Marcus Mariota is off to Atlanta. But the real movement is on the defensive side of the ball.
Specifically, two of their three top pass rushers (Yannick Ngakoue, pictured, and Quinton Jefferson) and 10 of their top 20 tacklers from last season are gone, either cut, traded or departing as free agents. Kind of a lot of turnover on that side of the ball.
Table shows Las Vegas' top defenders from last season, sorted by total tackles. Departures are in bold.
| TOP RAIDER TACKLERS, 2021 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Pos | G | Sck | Tot | Solo | Ast |
| Denzel Perryman | LB | 15 | 0.0 | 154 | 102 | 52 |
| Johnathan Abram | S | 14 | 0.0 | 116 | 64 | 52 |
| Cory Littleton | LB | 17 | 0.5 | 98 | 51 | 47 |
| Nate Hobbs | cb | 16 | 1.0 | 74 | 51 | 23 |
| Maxx Crosby | DE | 17 | 8.0 | 56 | 36 | 20 |
| Trevon Moehrig | S | 17 | 0.0 | 55 | 36 | 19 |
| Brandon Facyson | CB | 12 | 0.0 | 55 | 42 | 13 |
| K.J. Wright | LB | 17 | 0.0 | 51 | 25 | 26 |
| Quinton Jefferson | DT | 17 | 4.5 | 47 | 17 | 30 |
| Casey Hayward | CB | 17 | 0.0 | 46 | 39 | 7 |
| Divine Deablo | LB | 17 | 0.0 | 45 | 28 | 17 |
| Johnathan Hankins | DT | 14 | 0.0 | 38 | 15 | 23 |
| Dallin Leavitt | S | 16 | 0.0 | 35 | 17 | 18 |
| Solomon Thomas | DT | 17 | 3.5 | 34 | 17 | 17 |
| Yannick Ngakoue | DE | 17 | 10.0 | 28 | 17 | 11 |
| Darius Philon | DT | 11 | 2.0 | 27 | 19 | 8 |
| Carl Nassib | DE | 13 | 1.5 | 21 | 16 | 5 |
| Nick Kwiatkoski | LB | 8 | 0.0 | 21 | 13 | 8 |
The Raiders did make one of the bigger defensive signings this month. They added pass rusher Chandler Jones, who will pair with Maxx Crosby to give the team a nice one-two punch in that regard. And a case can also be made that Las Vegas should be turning things over on defense. This has been a bottom-5 fantasy defense (1 point for sacks, 2 for takeaways, 6 for touchdowns) five years in a row. Last year only 2 teams had fewer takeaways and only 11 had fewer sacks. Why not blow things up?
But aside from the Chandler Jones addition, they seem to have a lot to do on the defensive side of the ball to climb up to respectability. And they'll be doing it without the draft picks they sent to Green Bay to bring in Adams. Even if Jones works out, difficult to imagine this defense having enough talent to move up to even average defensively, fantasy or otherwise.
--Andy Richardson