The ego of the Raiders coaching staff is limiting Gareon Conley’s snaps
Cornerback Gareon Conley saw very little snaps on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers. For a team building for the future, they sure are neglecting developing one of their youngest players in favor of their older ones.
There’s nothing worse than getting blown out against a division rival. The Oakland Raiders just didn’t show up on Sunday in Los Angeles. What did show up, however, was the ego of the Raiders coaching staff.
Cornerback Gareon Conley saw only 13 snaps in the 26-10 loss to the Chargers. His headlining play was a 48 yard catch he allowed to receiver Tyrell Williams.
A play that gave him no safety help, which he probably was expecting since he allowed inside release. Conley’s snaps have been decreasing since week one of the season. At first, you’d think it would be because of an injury given his time in the NFL since being drafted. However, that isn’t the case for this instance. Conley’s decrease in snaps look to be because of some break downs in coverage. They’re limiting him thinking it will better serve him.
According to Vic Tafur of The Athletic, defensive coordinator Paul Guenther said he is treating Conley like a rookie since he missed most of last season. “Don’t want to give him too much.” That quote in it of itself is proving how huge of an ego Guenther has.
#Raiders cornerbacks snaps Sunday: Worley 49, Melvin 40, Hall 39, Rodgers-Cromartie 19, Conley 13.
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) October 8, 2018
He wants to limit Conley because he’s a rookie, but had no problem rolling him out for almost 100% of the snaps in the first two weeks. Don’t forget who’s on the defensive line for the Raiders. They’re all practically rookies. I don’t see Guenther being careful with any single one of them.
Make no mistake, this is all stemming from Guenther’s ego. He just wants to play his guys. The rookies on the defensive line were drafted by Gruden and this staff. Conley wasn’t. It’s why we’re seeing Reggie Nelson still keep his starting role even though he’s the worst safety in the league. The same goes for the rest of the cornerbacks. Leon Hall spent time with Guenther before, so there’s favoritism being played there.
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No other team, especially one that’s building for the future, would ever allow Leon Hall three times as many snaps as Gareon Conley. Hall has no stake in this team’s future. Conley does. So what if he’s getting beat? This is his first full season. Let him learn from this experience. It’s not like the Raiders are going anywhere this season.
They’ll be lucky to win six games with how things are looking right now, so let all the young guys develop. See what you have and set them up for success. It’s what these coaches get paid millions of dollars for. Coach these players up. Don’t give up because of something that wasn’t appeasing.
#Raiders' Rashaan Melvin (8) and Gareon Conley (7) have allowed 15 passes to go for 15+ yards this season.
— Austin Gayle (@austingayle_) October 8, 2018
Jon Gruden likely wants to stop giving up so many big plays on defense, and benching Conley may be his attempt in doing so.
Hard to say if it's the right call, though.
Cornerback Rashaan Melvin hasn’t been as strong as he can be. In fact, according to this stat from Austin Gayle of Pro Football Focus he’s actually playing worse than Conley in the grand scale of things. Once again, why is Conley being limited? It’s because Conley isn’t their guy. They didn’t acquire him.
They did hand select Melvin to join the team. This is where Jon Gruden comes in. He’s the head coach, so he has final say on everything. He could tell Guenther to put Conley in and not limit him, but he’s not going to. He wants to roll with his guys. Gruden would rather fall riding with his players than to allow Reggie McKenzie‘s players do well and make him look bad.
It feels like Gruden is doing this out of spite for Reggie. It’s not as inconceivable as you would think because this is Jon Gruden we’re talking about here. You know… the guy that traded Reggie’s best player that he ever drafted. Gruden is irrational and impatient with his personnel decisions. We’re seeing it right now with Conley and the fact that he isn’t a proponent of Gruden means that he’s expendable.
Gareon Conley won’t be the only one either. If any of Reggie’s picks, that includes Derek Carr and Amari Cooper, don’t play up to par, then they’ll most likely be shipped out or allowed to walk.
dark. Next. Raiders at Chargers: 5 takeaways from Week 5 loss
You never know with Gruden, but so far he hasn’t given us any reason to trust what he says. Everything has been just fluff. Only time will tell if the decision to limit Gareon Conley will actually benefit him. I just don’t see how this coaching staff can expect any player to get better when they’re not getting the in game experience. Once again, we’ll see if this all pays off in the end