The Las Vegas Raiders knew that they were facing an uphill battle heading into the 2025 NFL season with an all-new leadership duo of Pete Carroll and John Spytek, and a roster that was largely overhauled from the season prior.
As expected, no shortage of issues arose at various points during the offseason. But Raider Nation finally had faith in their veteran coach to right the ship and address any problems before they metastasized and affected the team even more.
For instance, during the three-game preseason slate, the team really struggled with missed tackles. Fortunately, Carroll, defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and the rest of the staff jumped all over this, and it was a non-issue during the first few weeks of the 2025 NFL season.
Raiders must fix missed tackle issues against Johnathan Taylor and Colts
However, that problem is starting to creep up again, and it couldn't be happening at a worse time. After missing 28 tackles as a team in the preseason, including two games where they had 10 or more, the Raiders missed just 10 total tackles in the first two weeks of the regular season.
While that is still not ideal, it was definitely an improvement. In the last two games against the Washington Commanders and Chicago Bears, though, the Raiders' issue is picking back up again, as they missed 11 and eight tackles, respectively.
This is nearly double the amount of tackles they missed in the first two games, which is a bad sign with star Indianapolis Colts running back Johnathan Taylor on the horizon as the Raiders travel to Lucas Oil Stadium in Week 5.
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Taylor is not only among the very elite running backs in the league in terms of total production, but according to Pro Football Focus, he is also one of the most elusive. So far in 2025, he has 380 rushing yards after contact and a whopping 20 forced missed tackles in just four games.
His combination of quickness and all-out speed mean that he will surely make the Raiders pay for missing tackles. He also ranks toward the top of the league with nine rushes of 10 or more yards, and he's already scored three times on the ground, in addition to 414 total yards.
Devin White, Isaiah Pola-Mao, Adam Butler and Elandon Roberts have been the biggest culprits when it comes to not wrapping up, but the Raiders have eight players with multiple missed tackles already this season.
Las Vegas is already up against it in Week 5 against the Colts, and Taylor is hard enough to contain as is. But if they fail to do simple things like swarm to the ball and bring ball carriers to the ground without whiffing, it may be another long Sunday for Raider Nation.