"Man, I really hope that was vanilla."
This is a sentence commonly said by people who ordered a basic flavor at the ice cream shop but aren't sure that the worker scooped from the right tub. This was also said by Las Vegas Raiders fans who watched Rob Leonard's unit in his preseason play-calling debut against the Arizona Cardinals.
Look, there is no way to sugarcoat it: Leonard's group struggled tremendously on Thursday evening. They looked all out of whack, and in a simple sense, just couldn't stop the Cardinals' first- and second-team offenses from moving the ball. That, among other things, was a bit concerning.
And if the same issues persist during joint practices and next week's preseason game, then sure, Raider Nation can start to have legitimate gripes with the first-time DC. But it was his first go-around, and Leonard is dealing with an incredibly young defense that has a lot of new pieces.
Don't worry, at least not yet.
Raiders fans should still hold out hope for Rob Leonard's defense to turn things around
Las Vegas ran a lot of man coverage against Arizona in the opener, and young defensive backs like Jermod McCoy, Zeke Masses and Darien Porter really struggled to stick with their guys. McCoy got beat at the top of the route and gave up two touchdowns on fades, and Porter gave up another score.
Masses and veteran Eric Stokes both got left in the dust on slants or out routes as well, and the unit didn't get any takeaways, which has been a focal point for Leonard's unit this offseason. Overall, the group missed 11 tackles, which is too many, and the secondary accounted for seven of them.
It remains unclear if the plan is to run so much man coverage during the regular season, and it remains even more unclear if the Raiders have the proper personnel to run that. But that is what Las Vegas indicated it would run, based on last night.
The linebacker corps actually fared pretty well, as Quay Walker and Cody Lindenberg both flashed against the run. They also had no real issues in pass coverage, as it was the cornerbacks who got picked on by Arizona head coach Mike LaFleur.
But the defensive line didn't have a great showing, which is particularly worrisome for a group led by a former defensive line coach. And the Raiders couldn't stop the run at all, giving up 156 yards, which is troublesome after Leonard did a good job as the defensive run game coordinator last year.
Arizona dropped back to pass 32 times on Thursday evening, and the Las Vegas defensive line mustered just six pressures. Safety Jeremy Chinn notched one as well. But the defensive line had just four players with a pass-rush win rate of over 10.0%, and that simply isn't going to cut it.
In the first half, the Cardinals didn't throw an incomplete pass, scored a touchdown on all three drives and did not get off the field one time on third down. Those are all glaring, glaring issues that Leonard's unit needs to iron out.
However, let's not rake Leonard over the coals. First of all, he didn't have Maxx Crosby in the lineup, which is an unquantifiable disadvantage. You don't want to be reliant on Crosby alone for production, but it certainly changes the equation.
Leonard was also dealing with a lot of young players out there making their NFL debuts, or guys in their first game with the Silver and Black, so a learning curve is expected. And it was his first time calling plays, so that was a huge undertaking for him as well, even knowing he prepared quite a bit.
Most importantly, though, the hope is that Leonard wasn't showing his stuff. It seemed like a lot of basic man coverage, and coming from the Mike Macdonald and Brian Flores trees, one hopes that Leonard has some tricks up his sleeve with blitzes and has unique ways to dial up pressure.
He wouldn't show those cards during a preseason game, especially not one against the Raiders' Week 17 foe. So, let's hold out hope that this unit was just getting rid of the kinks and learning on the job while also playing a fairly vanilla defense. And it is not unreasonable to think that that's the case.
If these issues persist during joint practices against the Houston Texans and pop up in the next two exhibition games, and the young players don't look like they are making any progress, fans will have a legit bone to pick with Leonard. But we are not there yet.
Remember, this is a rebuild. These things take time. And with a proper runway to utilize, it will become clear if Leonard is the right man for the job or not. But one preseason game isn't a big enough sample size to crown him a genius or indict him as unqualified.
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