The Raiders signed cornerback Marcus Peters yesterday, and seldom has there been a more compelling case of a team addressing its biggest need with the best option. Peters has been about the league's most opportunistic cornerback since entering the league, while the Raiders have had the least opportunistic defense.
Granted, Peters' best work came earlier in his career. He had 8 interceptions as a rookie (2015), then followed it up with 6 the next year. He had only 1 in 13 games for the Ravens last year, but was coming back from a torn ACL that wiped out his entire 2021 season, so he might not have been 100 percent. He turned 30 in January, so he's past his prime but not necessarily ready for the pasture. In his last full season (2020), he had 4 interceptions in 14 games.
Since entering the league, Peters has 32 interceptions (about 4.5 per season), and has returned 6 of those for touchdowns. Both figures are tops in the NFL over that timeframe. It's at least twice as many touchdowns as all but two players. (Data from pro-football-reference.com was used in compiling this table.)
INTERCEPTIONS, 2015-2022 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Player | Pos | G | Int | TD |
Marcus Peters | RCB | 104 | 32 | 6 |
Xavien Howard | RCB | 87 | 28 | 2 |
Kevin Byard | FS | 114 | 27 | 1 |
Justin Simmons | FS | 103 | 27 | 1 |
Tyrann Mathieu | FS | 120 | 26 | 3 |
J.C. Jackson | DB | 67 | 25 | 1 |
Jordan Poyer | DB | 111 | 24 | 1 |
Darius Slay | LCB | 122 | 24 | 2 |
Harrison Smith | FS | 119 | 24 | 1 |
Quandre Diggs | SS | 120 | 23 | 2 |
Stephon Gilmore | CB | 107 | 23 | 2 |
Tashaun Gipson | SS | 120 | 20 | 1 |
Duron Harmon | DB | 130 | 20 | 1 |
Micah Hyde | FS | 112 | 20 | 1 |
Jackrabbit Jenkins | RCB | 99 | 20 | 3 |
Minkah Fitzpatrick | SS | 79 | 19 | 4 |
Patrick Peterson | LCB | 120 | 19 | 1 |
Jalen Ramsey | LCB | 108 | 19 | 1 |
Marcus Williams | FS | 86 | 19 | 1 |
James Bradberry | LCB | 109 | 18 | 1 |
Devin McCourty | FS | 128 | 18 | 2 |
Malcolm Butler | LCB | 89 | 17 | 2 |
Trevon Diggs | LCB | 45 | 17 | 2 |
Tre'Davious White | LCB | 78 | 17 | 0 |
Casey Hayward | RCB | 117 | 16 | 1 |
Reggie Nelson | FS | 59 | 16 | 0 |
Ha Ha Clinton-Dix | SS | 82 | 15 | 1 |
Kyle Fuller | LCB | 97 | 15 | 0 |
Trumaine Johnson | LCB | 61 | 15 | 3 |
Jessie Bates III | FS | 79 | 14 | 1 |
Tre Boston | FS | 93 | 14 | 0 |
Bashaud Breeland | RCB | 91 | 14 | 2 |
Rasul Douglas | RCB | 89 | 14 | 2 |
Kendall Fuller | LCB | 102 | 14 | 2 |
Donte Jackson | LCB | 64 | 14 | 1 |
Eddie Jackson | FS | 88 | 14 | 3 |
Damontae Kazee | FS | 78 | 14 | 0 |
Marshon Lattimore | RCB | 80 | 14 | 2 |
Rodney McLeod | SS | 108 | 14 | 1 |
Kenny Moore | LCB | 87 | 14 | 1 |
Damarious Randall | DB | 75 | 14 | 2 |
Daniel Sorensen | DB | 119 | 14 | 4 |
Earl Thomas | FS | 60 | 14 | 1 |
Then there's the Raiders. They have the fewest interceptions in the league over that same timeframe (80), and have been especially bad recently. Over the last six years, they have only 50 interceptions -- just over 8 per year. That's not only the worst in the league, it's at least 13 fewer interceptions than every other team. Terrible.
TEAM INTERCEPTIONS, 2017-2022 | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Team | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | Tot |
New England | 12 | 18 | 25 | 18 | 23 | 19 | 115 |
Buffalo | 18 | 16 | 14 | 15 | 19 | 17 | 99 |
LA Rams | 18 | 18 | 13 | 14 | 19 | 16 | 98 |
Pittsburgh | 16 | 8 | 20 | 18 | 13 | 20 | 95 |
Kansas City | 16 | 15 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 11 | 89 |
Minnesota | 14 | 12 | 17 | 15 | 16 | 15 | 89 |
New Orleans | 20 | 12 | 13 | 18 | 18 | 7 | 88 |
Indianapolis | 13 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 19 | 10 | 87 |
Miami | 9 | 21 | 13 | 18 | 14 | 8 | 83 |
Tennessee | 12 | 11 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 14 | 82 |
Green Bay | 11 | 7 | 17 | 11 | 18 | 17 | 81 |
Seattle | 14 | 12 | 16 | 14 | 11 | 14 | 81 |
Baltimore | 22 | 12 | 13 | 10 | 9 | 14 | 80 |
Washington | 16 | 15 | 13 | 16 | 11 | 9 | 80 |
LA Chargers | 18 | 13 | 11 | 12 | 11 | 14 | 79 |
Dallas | 10 | 9 | 7 | 10 | 26 | 16 | 78 |
Philadelphia | 19 | 10 | 11 | 8 | 12 | 17 | 77 |
Chicago | 8 | 27 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 14 | 77 |
Tampa Bay | 13 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 17 | 10 | 76 |
Denver | 10 | 17 | 10 | 10 | 13 | 15 | 75 |
Jacksonville | 21 | 11 | 10 | 12 | 7 | 14 | 75 |
Houston | 11 | 15 | 12 | 3 | 17 | 16 | 74 |
Cleveland | 7 | 17 | 14 | 11 | 13 | 11 | 73 |
Cincinnati | 11 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 13 | 13 | 71 |
NY Giants | 13 | 16 | 10 | 11 | 15 | 6 | 71 |
Atlanta | 8 | 15 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 69 |
NY Jets | 11 | 13 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 12 | 65 |
San Francisco | 10 | 2 | 12 | 12 | 9 | 20 | 65 |
Arizona | 15 | 7 | 7 | 11 | 13 | 11 | 64 |
Carolina | 10 | 13 | 14 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 63 |
Detroit | 19 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 11 | 12 | 63 |
Las Vegas | 5 | 14 | 9 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 50 |
Working on the defensive story for the magazine, I was actually kicking around the idea of the Raiders being a deep sleeper defense. I thought better of it; they didn't make it into the final top 20. They've just been too ineffective for too long. But I considered them because they were at least better in some areas the second half of last season than the first (for example, they had just 10 sacks the first nine games, compared to 17 in the final eight -- still below-average, but improved). With a healthy Peters on the roster, they should definitely finish with more than 6 interceptions, too.
Not that anyone should be selecting the Las Vegas defense, but let's give them some props for perceiving a glaring need and signing a player who can perhaps help fix it. That counts for something.
--Andy Richardson