The Las Vegas Raiders traded up in the 2021 NFL Draft to select TCU star safety Tre’Von Moehrig, and he has been better than expected.
Going into this offseason, the Las Vegas Raiders knew they need to do something to improve in the defensive backfield. Sure, adding defensive coordinator Gus Bradley was huge, as he can work wonders in the secondary, but they needed to bring in the talent for him to work with.
In the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft, the Raiders traded up for safety Tre’Von Moehrig, who was dominant during his time at TCU. The hope was that he could come in and be the free safety, enabling Johnathan Abram to play more of a box safety role, and that looks to be the perfect play so far this summer.
In fact, the duo is playing outstanding football, and in Moehrig, the Raiders may have found an elite talent at the NFL level.
Raiders finally have good, young players in the secondary
Moehrig and Abram will help lead a young, and talented secondary, one that also will lean on a veteran in Casey Hayward Jr. The addition of Hayward was crucial for this defense, as he is familiar with Bradley’s scheme after their time together with the Chargers, and brings tremendous leadership to a young defensive back group.
Trayvon Mullen returns as the true CB1, and we have seen some better play out of 2020 first-round pick Damon Arnette this summer as well. Nate Hobbs, a 2021 draft pick as well, has come in and looked like a legitimate starting slot cornerback, bringing hope for a position group that has been atrocious in recent memory.
Las Vegas Raiders: Answering some defensive questions in 2021
This year, the Las Vegas Raiders added plenty of talent to the defense that will hopefully translate to the field in 2021 and beyond.
The bottom line is if Moehrig can translate his strong play into the regular season, and Abram plays the way he has this summer, the Raiders have a dominant, young duo at safety for the foreseeable future. We all expected Moehrig to be solid when the team went up to get him in the draft, be he has exceeded even the biggest expectations so far this summer.