Conley’s breakout play
Let’s start off with some positives (yes, there are some) from Sunday’s game and it starts with Gareon Conley. Per Pro Football Focus Conley has had his two highest graded games of the season the past two weeks. Against Baltimore Conley was the second highest graded defensive player with a 74.7 overall grade.
Conley had two tackles (one solo, one assisted) and recorded two pass deflections on the day, one coming on a beautiful deflection that resulted in a Marcus Gilchrist interception. Watching Conley in action on the aforementioned play was a beautiful sight to see, and was evidence of the reason why he was taken in the first round in 2017.
After taking a backseat early in the season, Conley has gotten much more valuable playing time and has earned every snap. There was much speculation surrounding whether Conley would fit in the future plans of the Raiders, but if he continues the type of play we’ve seen these past two games it (should) give Jon Gruden reason to keep him in the future plans for this defense.