Oakland Raiders Team Awards: MVP, Rookie of the Year, and more
By Brad Weiss
Most Improved Player: Karl Joseph
While Gareon Conley certainly improved from one season to the next, Karl Joseph takes home the award for Most Improved Player for the 2018 NFL season. A 2016 first round selection, Joseph had struggled mightily his first two seasons in the league, but really flourished in Paul Guenther’s defense in 2018.
Joseph has always been a hard-hitting safety, but this season, he developed into an all-around solid player for the Raiders. He will be counted on to help Conley lead this defensive backfield moving forward, and based on what we have seen this season, he may just be a first round talent after-all.
Coach of the Year: Derrick Ansley
The Coach of the Year for the Raiders this season has to be Derrick Ansley, whom the team plucked from the college ranks to be their defensive backs coach. Ansley, in his first season coaching at the NFL level, really turned around guys like Joseph and Conley, and is turning this Raiders secondary into an absolute strength.
Coming to Oakland via the Alabama Crimson Tide, whom he helped win a national title in 2018, Ansley proved that all those years coaching at the college level paid off. He is going to be so important to this team moving forward, as he continues to develop this very young secondary.