The Las Vegas Raiders made plenty of improvements this offseason, but they still had no shortage of questions heading into their Week 1 game against the New England Patriots. Specifically, three position groups needed to come up with answers to pull out a victory.
Of course, the cornerback room was under a microscope, as it has been all offseason. However, after the sudden departure of Amari Cooper, at least one of the team's young wide receivers needed to answer the call on Sunday as well.
In addition to these two units, the defensive tackle room needed another player to step up alongside Adam Butler if the Raiders were going to get some push in the trenches. Here's how all three of these groups fared in Week 1.
Grading the Raiders' CB, WR, and DT tackle rooms after Week 1
1. Wide receiver: A-
Brock Bowers and Jakobi Meyers were the key cogs, as expected, but the young trio of Tre Tucker, Dont'e Thornton Jr. and Jack Bech all made major contributions. They hauled in five combined catches for 122 yards and a touchdown, while Michael Mayer added four more grabs for 38 yards.
Tucker had a big touchdown catch on the opening drive, Bech had a huge conversion on third-and-long, and Thornton made a major readjustment to bring in a sliding catch and extend the team's final drive, which helped them clinch the game.
2. Defensive tackle: B
Both Thomas Booker IV and Jonah Laulu had their moments on Sunday, which prevented this group from being graded lower. Leki Fotu and J.J. Pegues were both healthy scratches, and Tonka Hemingway did not make much of an impact.
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But Booker looked incredibly fast against New England, recording three tackles, a pass defended and a quarterback hit. Laulu also flashed with two solo tackles and a sack. Booker had a total of five pressures, and Laulu had just one, but these two kept the unit afloat.
3. Cornerback: C-
The secondary was not as disastrous as Raider Nation expected it to be against the Patriots, but they were still a far cry from being good. Kyu Blu Kelly and Eric Stokes combined to give up 11 catches for 110 yards on 15 targets for an opposing QBR of around 90.
While they only gave up a combined eight yards after the catch, they each missed a tackle, and Kelly was flagged for pass interference, albeit questionable. More concerning was that neither Darien Porter nor Decamerion Richardson subbed in, so this group may be even thinner than most thought.