Predicting the superlatives for the Raiders 2022 season
Defensive Player of the Year: Rock Ya-Sin
Stay with me here.
Maxx Crosby is the easy answer, and Chandler Jones is almost as easy. Outside of a 2020 season in which he appeared in 5 contests, Jones has recorded double-digit sacks in 6 consecutive seasons. In these six years, the former Cardinal finished top-three in Defensive Player of the Year voting on two separate occasions.
On the other end of the line, Maxx Crosby is coming off of a season in which he led the NFL in pressures, per Pro Football Focus. This earned him a league-high PFF grade of 91.4 among edge rushers. His leap to stardom also earned him a second-team All-Pro spot, as well as a Pro Bowl appearance, where he earned Defensive MVP.
Yet, I’ve chosen neither of these guys as the Defensive Player of the Year. With some outside-of-the-box thinking, newcomer Rock Ya-Sin has become my choice.
Let’s address the obvious questions you have right now.
For Offensive Player of the Year, I stated I felt the award was more about stats than anything else. When it comes to Defensive Player of the Year, though, I don’t share that same thought process. The reason is that, whether fair or unfair, Most Valuable Player has become almost exclusively an offensive player award. That said, I view Defensive Player of the Year in the most valuable sense, as the defensive equivalent of MVP.
As I stated early on, it’s easy to call Maxx or Chandler your Defensive Player of the Year, but let’s add substance to this. Acknowledging either of these two players could be the DPOTY means two things:
1. The unit they’re a part of has not just one, but two players who can be considered the best players on the defensive side as a whole.
2. In coordination with 1, the edge rushers should be the most effective unit on this defense.
In comparison to Ya-Sin’s secondary, there’s no Pro Bowler, meaning the entire secondary is wide open for any individual to be the star. For my money, if any Raider is to become that star next season, it will be Ya-Sin. If this prediction rings true at the end of the season, Ya-Sin will undoubtedly be the most valuable defensive player in his respective unit.
However, the value is half the battle. After all, to be considered valuable, let alone the most valuable, you have to produce. You have to be a playmaker and make opposing coordinators fear your presence. Here’s why I’m led to believe that will be the case next season with Ya-Sin.
When Chandler Jones to Las Vegas was all but official, the front office knew they had to move Yannick Ngakoue. The thing to focus on here is that Ngakoue was coming off of a great year, in which he lead the Raiders in sacks, and was a Pro Bowl alternate. Ngakoue was worth a pretty penny, but Las Vegas targeted Indianapolis’ ’19 second-round pick – Rock Ya-Sin.
Although the exact reason Ya-Sin was the Raiders’ target remains unconfirmed, it’s pretty easy to take a guess here; Man coverage personnel. Last season, in man coverage, Ya-Sin earned the fifth-highest PFF grade, as well as the league’s lowest completion percentage at 26.7%.
Similarly, newcomer Anthony Averett allowed the lowest opposing quarterback rating league-wide throughout the first month of football last season. Although Trayvon Mullen will likely start opposite of Ya-Sin, it’s clear the plan was to load up on coverage specialists.
Now here’s where it gets interesting – When we go back to how both Crosby and Jones are All-Pros, no one benefits from this more than the secondary, where Ya-Sin plays. The dominant pass rush of the pair should force quarterbacks to get rid of the football sooner than they wish, allowing a press cornerback such as Ya-Sin to feast on the forced mistakes.
Lastly, while it may not sound like much, Ya-Sin is on the last year of his rookie contract and surely eager to get paid this summer. If he balls out like I’m predicting, he’ll earn a sweet payday by the end of the year.
This is all just theory, so I could’ve put Ya-Sin as my dark horse breakout player and went with a safer option like Crosby or Jones as my Defensive Player of the Year, but I’m confident enough in Ya-Sin’s ability to place him here. Onto the next.