Oakland Raiders: Free Agency Checklist

Cornerback

Plan A: Sign one of Janoris Jenkins/Jeremy Lane/Casey Hayward
Plan B: Sign Sean Smith

My “No” List: Adam Jones, Leon Hall, Prince Amukamara

Many Raider fans look at corner as the group needing the most help. This is where I differ from conventional thinking, but it never hurts to add a cornerback that fits the current scheme. There is of course a question of what the actual scheme is, but any player that has flexibility form man to zone along with positional flexibility to play slot is ideal.

To me, cornerback is much more about scheme fit than it is about finding the most outstanding talent. Yes, it does help to have a Darrelle Revis, but look at the modern cornerback. Two of the top four corners in the league are almost strictly cover one/cover three corners that overwhelmingly play on one side of the field. Those players being Sherman and Norman.

The closest thing the NFL has to Revis is Patrick Peterson and even he still allows big plays and is not nearly as scheme versatile as Revis. The fact is, this is the death of the “shutdown” cornerback. They no longer exist. The college game does not breed them, and because the pro game is continuing to build more and more into the spread offenses, it will soon reflect this reality.

The question then becomes, which scheme will we implement and will these players fit? Or vice versa, but both approach still means there needs to be schematic requirements that fit the skill set of the players.

In this group, Janoris Jenkins is a bit of the outlier. He is more of a press man cornerback although he did trickle in some cover two and quarters. His cohort on the other side, Trumaine Johnson, more often than not was asked to do the versatile work and mixed into multiple coverages while Jenkins would man up on a receiver. .

Lane and Hayward both come from versatile coverage schemes and would easily fit into what the Raiders would want to do because of their positional versatility. They may not be as talented as Jenkins, but their scheme fit may be worth much more to the Raiders.

Plan B is the 30-year-old Sean Smith. Three seasons ago Smith took less money to go to Kansas City and he has not really changed who he is as a player since. He is a tall and long press man cornerback who can be beat by speed. There are other targets I would much prefer, but getting Smith although shortsighted, is not inherently bad.

Contracts

Janoris Jenkins: 5 years, 60 million, 25 million guaranteed
Jeremy Lane: 4 years, 32 million, 12 million guaranteed
Casey Hayward: 4 years, 25 million, 10 million guaranteed
Sean Smith: 3 years, 24 million, 8 million guaranteed