Las Vegas Raiders 2020 Rookie Roles: Linebacker Tanner Muse

What his role will be as a rookie

The Raiders have four linebackers currently ahead of Tanner Muse in the pecking order including two players in Nicholas Morrow and Marquel Lee who have been with the organization for a few years already. Unless Muse tears it up in training camp, especially given the lack of preseason, we should expect him to remain behind them on the depth chart on defense.

Muse also has the added challenge of learning a whole new position and new defensive scheme without the benefit of mini camps and OTAs so that puts him even further behind the curve. He is a smart football player by all accounts so we can be confident that he will pick it up quickly but it may be too soon to expect much contributions from him right away.

The Raiders are luckily in a position where they don’t need him to contribute on defense just yet. He will be asked to back up both the Mike and Will linebacker positions and will be tasked with learning their intricacies as the summer and season go along. As mentioned this is something he is used to doing as he played all over the field on Clemson’s title-winning defenses.

So it’s far more likely that he will use that 4.4 speed and ball-hawking instincts on special teams until he is up to speed on defense. If Muse shows the same instincts and desire that he showed in his time at Clemson then he may quickly become a cult hero in Las Vegas with some highlight plays.