Las Vegas Raiders are in their best position to succeed in years
Defense heading into 2022
On the defensive side of the ball, the Raiders hired one of the most promising defensive coordinators in Patrick Graham. It is not very often that defensive coordinators of his caliber become available, and he was so lauded for his expertise in New York, that newly hired Giants head coach Brian Daboll wanted to hang on to Graham, despite the fact he was virtually bringing in a whole new coaching staff with his arrival.
Graham will mix up schemes with this Raider defense, who actually performed very strongly under former defensive coordinator Gus Bradley. The defense led by a devastating pass-rushing combo in defensive ends Yannick Ngakoue and Pro Bowler Maxx Crosby, will look to improve on a season in which the pair combined for nearly 20 sacks.
Mixing in a 3-4 scheme and other defensive packages will surely bring the most out of this pair and whoever is brought in or kept on this roster, especially with a pair of intriguing young options in last year’s draft choices at Malcolm Koonce and Divine Deablo, who have “3-4” written all over them. The secondary will also benefit from the change, and Graham might be able to get the most of former first-round pick Johnathan Abram, who has been a mixed bag, to say the least.
Plenty of players on this roster lobbied to keep things intact, especially the coaching staff — which is a fair thing to ask considering the Raiders indeed make the postseason. But no matter how admirable of a job Bisaccia did in salvaging this franchise, he was not the best man for this job, or for better or worse — the man to lead this team to a Super Bowl.
Davis made the right call in bringing in new personnel, and hopefully a “changing of the guard” for a franchise that is seeing more trouble off the field than on it.