If you watched the 2026 NFL Draft without knowing anything about the Las Vegas Raiders, you'd think that they were starting from scratch in the secondary. John Spytek and Klint Kubiak took two each of corners and safeties, which signaled that what they had in the building wasn't deemed good enough.
That meant that returners like third-year pro Decamerion Richardson were under a microscope and needed to have good training camps to even stick around. Many, including myself, were ready to give up on him with the new influx of talent at cornerback, but Richardson has recently flipped the switch.
Zeke Masses' rapid rise and the presence of Jermod McCoy made Richardson look expendable to an extent, but he is starting to stack days in Las Vegas. The Raiders even slotted him in at the second-string cornerback spot behind Eric Stokes, ahead of McCoy, on their first unofficial depth chart.
He's making the roster picture harder to predict, but in the best way possible.
Decamerion Richardson is making Raiders' CB decisions more difficult
Las Vegas can't keep everybody at cornerback, but Stokes, Masses, McCoy, vet Taron Johnson and incumbent starter Darien Porter all feel like locks. So, the question became who the Raiders would keep as their sixth corner, if they kept a sixth one at all, given their immense secondary versatility.
Richardson is making a significant argument that not only should it be him, but that the coaching staff shouldn't even really have to think about it. Early in training camp, Richardson was rotating in with the 1s ahead of McCoy, which should have been an indicator right away of how the staff felt about him.
When the pads came on, Richardson got credit for locking up Dont'e Thornton Jr. in 1-on-1 drills, and the next day, he "made some plays," too, according to The Athletic's Sam Warren. One of those was a pass breakup in 7-on-7, which isn't easy, and he got more reps with the top group in the team period.
Reporter Q Myers went on a long spiel after that practice about Richardson's confidence growing, which seemed to be an issue for him at points during his first two seasons. Other than that, it's been fairly quiet on the Richardson front, but that's good for a corner.
And someone was keeping McCoy down with the third-team defense.
Maybe the light bulb is coming on for Richardson under Rob Leonard's tutelage.
From a physical traits perspective, Richardson has always had the ability to be a great boundary corner. With a tall and long frame, as well as blistering speed, Richardson can be a factor at cornerback and on special teams. But he just hasn't shown it yet in his young career.
He is starting to now, though, and his being listed ahead of McCoy on the unofficial depth chart is significant. If it were all about seniority, then Masses, a fifth-rounder, wouldn't be listed ahead of McCoy, a fourth-rounder. Tonka Hemingway wouldn't be the first-team defensive tackle, either.
Yet, they are.
His being tabbed as a second-stringer behind Stokes is significant, and perhaps Raider Nation should be paying a bit more attention to Richardson at this juncture. He'll have to prove his worth in the rest of camp, the preseason and the regular season to stay where he is in the pecking order.
But as it stands now, Richardson looks like he's in line to make the 53-man team, which could make the math more difficult for fans who counted him out. The roster picture isn't easy to figure out at this point, and that's a good thing. Competition is important. Richardson is the face of that right now.
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