Raiders 2022 free agency recap: Johnathan Hankins and a new quarterback

The Las Vegas Raiders make additions to the defensive line and quarterback room.

Raiders bring back Johnathan Hankins

Now entering year five as a Raider, Hankins has been a pillar of availability down in the trenches. Through his four seasons with the team, the 340lb defensive lineman has missed only four contests, with three of those four happening in 2021. He’s consistently been one of the Raiders’ better run defenders in the interior, using his size to seal up gaps.

Hankins has shown he still can get to the quarterback, too, proven with his 14 quarterback hits through his Raider tenure. This might seem irrelevant, but although the big no.90 is mostly a run defender now, he once had notable pass-rushing skills.

Through the first four years of his career, as a New York Giant, Hankins was only able to start double-digit games twice. In these two healthy seasons combined, the defensive tackle compiled10 sacks.

This is useful information, particularly once you realize one of these two years of producing sacks came working with Las Vegas’ new defensive coordinator, Patrick Graham, back in New York. Hankins, now 30, may very well have his pass-rushing days behind him. However, not only is he reunited with a defensive coach he produced sacks with but now has two All-Pros at the edges.