The Las Vegas Raiders have been constantly reshuffling their defense this offseason. New general manager John Spytek and head coach Pete Carroll stopped at nothing to find upgrades for this side of the ball, despite the unit faring decently during the 2024 NFL season.
All three of the team's starting cornerbacks from a year ago are now gone, as Nate Hobbs was not re-signed in free agency, Jack Jones was released before the NFL Draft and Jakorian Bennett was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles last week before the preseason games began.
Las Vegas brought in free agent Eric Stokes and rookies Darien Porter and Greedy Vance Jr. to supplement returners like Decamerion Richardson. The rest of the holdovers were players who were on the field very seldom last season, like Darnay Holmes, Sam Webb and Kyu Blu Kelly.
Kyu Blu Kelly practices with Raiders first-team defense after strong preseason game
While most of the offseason hype went to Stokes and Porter, who opened Thursday's preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks as the starters, one unexpected Raiders cornerback has been challenging the coaching staff to rethink the depth chart.
Last week, the Raiders released their initial depth chart, and Kelly was listed as the third-string slot cornerback behind Holmes and Vance. However, after a strong preseason performance, Kelly was reportedly working as an outside cornerback with the starting group during Tuesday's practice.
Kelly was ready for the moment, too, as he had the highlight of the day, high-pointing a Geno Smith pass and hauling in the interception. The third-year pro reportedly played his zone correctly and was able to jump the route for the pick.
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During Thursday's preseason game, Kelly came away as the second-highest graded player on the Raiders' defense, according to Pro Football Focus. Kelly lined up out wide for Las Vegas and made two tackles and broke up two passes while only allowing one catch for five yards.
He did miss a tackle, but luckily for him, so did almost everyone on the Raiders' defense. Kelly made several plays, however, that stood out to both the coaching staff and fan base, and he was promptly rewarded with first-team reps at practice.
If Kelly can keep up this level of play throughout the preseason, he is going to make Spytek and Carroll's job very difficult as they attempt to narrow down the roster to 53 players. At the very least, his recent rise has given the Raiders another solid option in the secondary.