The secret's out: the Raiders' secondary is bad. Vegas fans have been not-so-secretly worrying about this exact fact for the last six months, but now that every single person on the internet is starting to dive into league-wide rankings for List SZN, the Raiders' presumed 2025 Achilles heel is getting way more attention. Remember how good the June vibes were?!
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The latest example comes from our friends at Pro Football Focus, who woke up today and clearly decided they hated the Raiders. How else could you explain their decision to rank Las Vegas' secondary 32nd – dead last – in their latest list? I know that taking lists personal is an overwrought reaction at this point, but it's clear that, this time, PFF really does hate the Raiders personally. Some might even say it's Raiders vs the World at this point.
Pro Football Focus thinks the Raiders have the worst secondary in the NFL
"Despite several offseason additions aimed at improving the secondary, this unit looks troublesome on paper. Safety Jeremy Chinn is the most seasoned veteran, but his 65.2 grade in 2024 was his best in three years—a reflection of recent struggles. The team drafted cornerback Darien Porter in the third round, and he could provide a spark, but the unit is expected to start multiple players who posted coverage grades below 50.0 last season."
I mean, yeah. Kinda hard to argue them at this point. I know everyone likes to hate on PFFs (sometimes seemingly arbitrary) stats when they don't go their way, but it's not hard to take a look at the Raiders' secondary stats/depth chart and see where PFF's coming from. Things might be bleak, especially early in the year; don't go look at the first four QBs they play this season.
Luckily, they hired the right man for the job. If there's a coach out there who can get the best out of an underachieving group of corners and safeties, it's probably Pete Carroll. And it's not like the Raiders don't have some exciting guys in that group – Porter could be an impact guy almost immediately, and both Decamerion Richardson and Jakorian Bennett are still young enough to improve on their underwhelming starts. I'm not coping, you're coping.