Las Vegas Raiders: 2020 Final rookie report card

Damon Arnette – CB

It was a shock to the NFL world when the Raiders decided to use their 19th pick on cornerback Damon Arnette with Trevon Diggs and Kristian Fulton still on the board, as both corners were considered by most analysts to be the better prospects, with the former definitely having a superior rookie season.

Playing in only seven games, two of those for only a single drive before leaving with an injury, the Ohio State product failed to be consistently available. Jon Gruden made it be known that Arnette needs to get stronger and be healthy not just in time for game day, but throughout the week in practice as well in a recent interview.

His lack of practice time, as well as a lack of a true off-season, really showed when he did hit the field. According to PFF, Arnette gave up 26 of his 32 targets, finishing with a putrid 41.7 grade. This ranks him at 118/124 qualifying corners on the season.

Paul Guenther and his scheme do deserve some of the blame for this. Arnette, like most of the corners on the roster, were drafted for their chops in man coverage, but the now-fired defensive coordinator seemed to mostly employ zone looks.

Trevon Diggs, who I mentioned earlier, was proficient in zone coming out of Alabama and would have been a better fit for that type of defense. That being said, as recently mentioned, the majority if not all of the Raiders corners are press-man types and so Arnette, as well as the rest of the secondary, should benefit should newly hired defensive coordinator Gus Bradley scheme to his player’s strengths.

Cornerback may be the hardest position to make the transition into the pro-level outside of quarterback, so it is far too early to say he’s a bust or a bad pack this early, especially considering the circumstances this year due to the limited off-season activities.

Grade: D