Las Vegas Raiders fall in latest ESPN 2021 Power Rankings
By Brad Weiss
The Las Vegas Raiders upgraded their roster, especially on defense this offseason, but still fell in ESPN’s latest 2021 Power Rankings.
The Las Vegas Raiders have spent the offseason bolstering their roster on both sides of the ball, as they look to finally make it back to the playoffs. The team has faltered down the stretch the last two seasons, and that has led to not only unrest with the fan base, but the roster being turned over time and time again.
With five of their seven 2021 draft picks, the Raiders focused on the defensive side of the ball, an area that was a real issue this past season. Despite having a top-10 offense, the Raiders’ defense was in the bottom-3 of the NFL last season and rightfully fired Paul Guenther towards the end of the year.
Now that Gus Bradley is at the helm as defensive coordinator, the hope is that the team brought in enough talent for him to work with on defense, as they face a gauntlet of good offensive teams this season.
Raiders drop two spots in latest ESPN Power Rankings
ESPN recently released their post-2021 NFL Draft power rankings, and in it, the Raiders actually fell two spots. Originally ranked at No. 20 overall after free agency, Las Vegas is now coming in at No. 22, which is a bit surprising when you consider their haul in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Looking at the issues on this roster heading into the draft, and after free agency, the team actually did a nice job filling the holes, albeit with picks that seemed unorthodox at the time. The team passed on the likes of Christian Darrisaw and Teven Jenkins to get Alex Leatherwood to play right tackle, which could end up being a stroke of genius, or another first-round miss.
After the first round, they selected five defensive players in a row, and you have to think talented guys like Divine Deablo, Malcolm Koonce, Nate Hobbs, and especially Trevon Moehrig will be upgrades on all three levels of the defense.
We will get a look at this Raiders’ new-look defense early on in 2021, as the schedule is tough right out of the gate. Las Vegas will need to be better on defense if they are going to do anything of substance because if they do not make the playoffs this upcoming season, there could be even more changes next offseason.