Recapping the Oakland Raiders joint practices with the Rams
By Sanjit T.
The Secondary
The Raiders defense held up pretty well, although they did give up a few big plays Day 1, the unit looks much improved. “Other than one sideline strike to Cooper Kupp when it was hard to tell exactly who was supposed to be responsible for coverage, Raiders defenders were more competitive than they were for the most part in 2018,” said Jerry McDonald.
When you consider the Rams already practiced vs the Chargers last week, they definitely had the advantage, as far as conditioning. But that didn’t hold back this secondary on either of the two days.
On Day 1, starting slot corner LaMarcus Joyner had a very nice play in zone coverage breaking up a Jared Goff pass to Brandin Cooks. A few plays later, Gareon Conley leaped up into the air and swatted down a pass intended for Tyler Higbee.
On Day 2 the defense started to gel together. Dylan Mabin picked off Blake Bortles, for the teams first interception during camp. Trayvon Mullen, the rookie, also got the nod to get reps with the first-string defense.
Although he replaced Worley, that doesn’t mean he is replacing Worley for good. Mullen was only getting reps because Worley did come back in. Worley came in and immediately started making an impact. he had a really nice strip, which was recovered by Josh Mauro.
Hopefully, he can continue to do that for the Raiders during the season because last season we didn’t get enough turnovers.
Although Oakland’s secondary was one of the leagues best, their overall defense was bad. This secondary is something they could continue to build upon. So far in camp, they’ve done a pretty nice job against the Rams offense, which is probably the most explosive in the league.
It’ll be really interesting to see which player plays which position on defense. Abram and Joseph are the safeties during nickel or dime defenses. But during base defense, we will have to find a spot for Lamarcus Joyner. It looks like Curtis Riley was playing with the first string instead of Karl Joseph on Day 2.
So maybe Joyner will end up playing on base with Abram because Riley was beaten multiple times.