What can Takkarist McKinley and Vic Beasley Jr. bring to the Raiders pass rush?

Raiders add Vic Beasley and Takkarist McKinley to the fold

What can Vic Beasley and Takk McKinley bring to the Raiders?

To put it simply, Vic Beasley and Takk McKinley can get to the quarterback at a better rate than most of the defensive lineman on the Raiders and that is enough to justify their signings. As we discussed in the previous slide, the Raiders have just 11 sacks on the season with Crosby leading the way with six all on his own.

Crosby’s fellow defensive ends have been nearly shut out in the sack department with Carl Nassib the only DE with a sack and he has just 1.5 on the season. Clelin Ferrell has been doing his part with 15 pressures but he has yet to record a sack which could be a combination of bad luck and just being a step late.

Takk McKinley and Vic Beasley have just one sack between them this season but they have also played just 210 snaps between the two of them compared to Nassib who has played 288 alone. When Beasley and McKinley are playing regularly they have shown that they can get to the QB at a solid clip.

Beasley had one incredible season with 15.5 sacks in 2016 and was named to the All-Pro team but also had an 8-sack campaign last year with Atlanta. McKinley has not had more than 7 sacks in a year but his 3.5 last season would have been fourth on the Raiders, tied with Maurice Hurst.

In terms of QB hits, Beasley and McKinley had 13 and 12 respectively last season and they would have been second and third on the 2019 Raiders just behind Crosby’s 14. They also had 15 tackles for loss between the two of them and would have been among the top performers in Silver and Black.

These two former Falcons are not going to game-changing pass rushers, but they would not be looking for a job in November if that was the case. What they can be however, is an improvement over what the Raiders have been currently working with and can help the Silver and Black build out a deeper defensive line rotation.

This will not be an overnight fix and pass rush is a position and Las Vegas needs to target true impact players there in free agency and the draft but Beasley and McKinley can be a band-aid solution for a team that just needs to make the playoffs.