It has been a tight battle this training camp between Darien Porter, Zeke Masses, Jermod McCoy and even Decamerion Richardson to start at boundary cornerback opposite Eric Stokes. With every passing practice, it felt like a different young player was poised to get the first-team nod in Week 1.
But things changed dramatically after the first preseason game. Richardson didn't play due to a personal matter, and the other three players struggled tremendously against the Arizona Cardinals, giving up all three touchdowns through the air, several other completions and missing a few tackles.
Apparently, though, the team seems to be rallying behind Porter as the frontrunner with joint practice and a preseason game against the Houston Texans on the horizon. Now approaching the halfway point in the preseason, Porter seems to be pulling away in this heated positional competition.
Darien Porter is reportedly pulling ahead in Raiders' CB2 battle
With all of the hype about late-round rookies Masses and McCoy, it was easy for a while to forget that Porter was a promising player as a rookie last season and shouldn't have been counted out as a starting option on the outside. But the hype train definitely followed other players more than him.
After the first preseason game, though, a drastic change occurred in practice, according to reporters: Porter took all of the first-team reps, pushing Masses and Richardson down with the 2s and McCoy all the way down with the 3s. This was the first time that there had not been a heavy rotation at the spot.
It was the same story the next day at practice as well, with Porter taking all of the reps with the top veteran group, and the others remaining with the second- and third-team defenses. A clear hierarchy seems to have been established, even though rotations and competitions drag on at other positions.
Now, it should be noted that Porter only played one drive, which was with the first-team defense, in the preseason opener, whereas Masses and McCoy played several possessions with the second unit. Maybe things were already trending in this direction before the exhibition game.
Porter wasn't exactly squeaky clean in the team's first match, as he played 11 defensive snaps and didn't record a single stat. And that's fine for a cornerback, but his lone notable play came when he gave up a touchdown to Marvin Harrison Jr. in the corner of the end zone to conclude the drive.
Outside of that play, the Raiders must have liked what they saw from the young player. Everyone gets beat sometimes, and for what it's worth, Porter gave up a touchdown last preseason and relinquished zero during the regular season in 319 coverage snaps.
That said, it seems like odd timing not to be necessarily crowning Porter as the CB2, but to be letting him and the rest of his challengers know that he's ahead in the battle. Perhaps Las Vegas is just trying to give the young players less to think about by keeping them in one group and not rotating.
Or maybe Porter has pulled ahead here.
One thing is for sure: Porter is keeping it in perspective.
"The competition comes down to who's going to be the best," Porter said to reporters. "I want the best guy out there. And if it's me, that's great. If it's not me, obviously I'm going to keep competing to make it that way. But you're only as strong as your weakest link, so you've got to bring everyone along with you in that room because we're going to need all of them."
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