Las Vegas Raiders: 3 players fans should keep an eye on this weekend
By Matt Holder
Chris Jones
Let me preface this section by saying Raider fans do NOT need to root for the Chiefs while keeping an eye on Chris Jones.
Ever since trading Khalil Mack, the organization has struggled to put pressure on opposing quarterbacks. While this past season was certainly a dramatic improvement from the year before, the coaching staff shouldn’t be satisfied by outpacing a historically bad season. Of course, young defensive tackles Maurice Hurst and P.J. Hall have shown a lot of promise but neither is on Jones’ level.
Since entering the league in 2016, Jones has racked up 33 sacks and 72 quarterback hits which rank third and sixth among defensive tackles, respectively. In comparison, Hurst and Hall have nine career sacks between them in their four combined seasons. The current Chief is only a year older than those two so if Las Vegas does have to sacrifice one of their 2018 draft picks to make room for Jones, the team won’t really be losing any young talent.
As far as run support goes, the big man has accumulated 27 tackles for loss the last couple of seasons and only Aaron Donald has more at the position. Clearly, he will be a hot commodity come March.
Next. 2020 NFL Draft: 3 Wide Receivers the Raiders could target in Round 3. dark
The Texans interior offensive lineman are fairly week and banged up, so the Silver and Black’s brass should get a decent look at what Jones brings to the table on Sunday. Then again, with four and a half sacks, nine QB hits, and six tackles for loss against the Raiders in his career, Gruden and Mayock may have already seen enough to make their decision.