Oakland Raiders: Top-5 disappointing players of 2018

Tahir Whitehead

I will give Tahir Whitehead credit, he played a lot better down the stretch of the season even with the multiple dropped interceptions. However, that does not overshadow the first ten weeks of the season where he was arguably one of the worst starting linebackers in the league.

Even with a better second half, Whitehead finished 68th among 91 linebackers according to Pro Football Focus which is even worse when you consider he played the fifth most snaps among all linebackers. At one point he was allowing a perfect passer rating in coverage and even without the advance numbers it was easy to identify his struggles in the passing game.

Whitehead was meant to come in and be a big upgrade from the makeshift linebacker group the Raiders had been throwing on the field the past few seasons. That was not the case for a majority of the season, and it became sort of clear why the Detroit Lions who are struggling big time at linebacker allowed him to walk away.

The Raiders have already stated they are keeping him around for 2019, so perhaps he could build off a solid end to the season, but the upside is not very evident. He did lead the team in tackles, so there is enough to carry over into 2019.