The Las Vegas Raiders have made a series of questionable decisions already, just seven games into the 2025 NFL season. While fans are mostly questioning owner Mark Davis for the hiring of Pete Carroll, Raider Nation is also putting their veteran coach through the ringer for his personnel choices.
Carroll's choice to continue starting Geno Smith amid his brutal performances to begin the year has rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way. So did his insistence on making Raheem Mostert a healthy scratch to begin the campaign when Zamir White was producing nothing for Las Vegas.
With the season lost, Carroll has come under fire for not playing rookies more, with the foremost examples being Stone Forsythe and Kyu Blu Kelly playing exclusively over Charles Grant and Darien Porter. But fans have forgotten about Decamerion Richardson, who's been shut out entirely in 2025.
Raiders have no excuse for playing Decamerion Richardson 0 snaps
Richardson was the lone holdover in Las Vegas from last year's active roster, and despite drawing plenty of praise from Carroll during the preseason, he has yet to play a defensive snap this year. Zero. Meanwhile, Kelly has given up more receiving yards than any other cornerback in the NFL.
Fans want Porter to take over the starting role for Kelly as soon as possible, but there is no excuse for Richardson having never stepped on the field, outside of 52 special teams snaps. He fits the mold of a Carroll cornerback at 6-foot-2, having 32 and 3/8-inch arms and 4.34-second 40-yard dash speed.
He also got quite a bit of experience as a rookie last season, playing 559 defensive snaps, 494 of which came as the outside cornerback. Richardson played sparingly on defense to begin the year, but took over the starting role after Jakorian Bennett was sent to the Injured Reserve.
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One could argue that Richardson was a liability, as he gave up 28 catches for 407 yards and a score in just nine games where he had a significant role. He also missed four tackles and was penalized four times, which gave him a 45.6 overall Pro Football Focus grade and a 42.2 mark in coverage.
But he also had 46 tackles, including one for a loss, and three pass breakups, and his 60.5 mark against the run and 73.1 tackling grade from PFF are both average or above-average scores. He also had a series of good showings against the Cincinnati Bengals, Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins.
Given how bad Kelly has played, and the fact that Eric Stokes missed a game due to injury, it is a wonder why Richardson has yet to step on the field for the Raiders' defense. Las Vegas isn't competing for anything this year, so the next 10 games should be about figuring out what they have.
Richardson wasn't a world beater as a rookie, but he had a strong offseason and performed well in each of the Raiders' three preseason tilts. With losses piling up, the coaching staff has completely lost the plot with this promising young player, as they're doing nothing to help his development.