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Defensive Notes

Leaving Las Vegas

Raiders seeing lots of turnover

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
PlayerPosGSckTotSoloAst
Denzel PerrymanLB150.015410252
Johnathan AbramS140.01166452
Cory LittletonLB170.5985147
Nate Hobbscb161.0745123
Maxx CrosbyDE178.0563620
Trevon MoehrigS170.0553619
Brandon FacysonCB120.0554213
K.J. WrightLB170.0512526
Quinton JeffersonDT174.5471730
Casey HaywardCB170.046397
Divine DeabloLB170.0452817
Johnathan HankinsDT140.0381523
Dallin LeavittS160.0351718
Solomon ThomasDT173.5341717
Yannick NgakoueDE1710.0281711
Darius PhilonDT112.027198
Carl NassibDE131.521165
Nick KwiatkoskiLB80.021138

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

Fantasy Index