The Oakland Raiders experienced severe difficulties on all three levels of the defense last season. However, with the addition of Lamarcus Joyner they look to resolve the issues that occurred on the back-end.
The Raiders and Joyner came to an agreement on day one of free-agency, giving them an established defensive back who provides the Raiders with some proven leadership. Another thing the signing does, it gives them a playmaker on the back-end of the defense who can play multiple positions. Joyner has the ability to play safety, outside corner and nickel.
Joyner has experience at all three positions, dating back to his time in college and his first five years he spent with the Rams. In college he played cornerback inside and outside the hashes. With the Rams he served as the teams nickel corner the first three seasons, then moving to safety for his following two years in Los Angeles.
Last season the Raiders scuffled at stopping opposing teams from driving down the field, as they allowed 381-yards per game. Coming in as the 26th worst team in the NFL. Coming into the offseason the secondary looked like a position of need, but after free-agency and the draft, the secondary looks like it could end up to be their deepest position.
The Raiders grabbed Jonathan Abram in the first-round, Trayvon Mullen in the second-round, and Isaiah Johnson in the fourth-round to help bolster the secondary of their revamped defense.
Joyner took to the podium on Tuesday before OTA’s practice and spoke about the differences between playing safety and nickel corner.
"“I believe slot is the hardest position on the field,” said Joyner. “Especially having to play the run game, the pass game, so just having a guy with the ability and the mental aspect of the game who can handle all those challenges.”"
Joyner hints that playing inside at the slot position isn’t for everyone. He expresses his belief that players must have a certain mental aspect of football in order to succeed in the slot.
With Joyner’s best season coming in 2017 when he played safety, he flashed his skillset as someone who can really cover opposing wideouts. Pro Football Focus graded Joyner with a 91.2 grade while in coverage in 2017, showing that his ability to cover one-on-one is a role that he can take on in a more consistent basis.
To go along with his elite coverage ability, he also plays an aggressive style of coverage, where he broke up a total of 12 passes over the last two seasons. Pro Football Focus also tagged him with the highest forced incompletion rate (25%) among qualifying safeties since 2006.
Despite Joyner’s smaller frame, listed at 5’8″ 191 pounds, he plays much bigger. He covers ground in a fast manner and has no issues breaking up a contested catch.
Joyner also touched on the idea of moving back and forth from safety to corner during a game.
"“Football’s pretty much the same (X’s and O’s),” said Joyner. “It becomes rhetorical once you keep going over and over, it’s just the terminology, so once I get that down in this scheme I’ll be able to do what I’ve been doing all my life.”"
This will be Joyner’s first season under Paul Guenther’s defensive scheme where he’ll be asked to move all over the field lining up in multiple positions. With that said, it appears he’s ready to take on his new role and put his versatility on full display to elevate the Raiders defense.
It’s expected to see Joyner play predominantly in the slot, but don’t be surprised if he takes snaps back at safety or if he’s assigned to cover tight ends one-on-one during certain matchups.