Raiders defense disregarded heading into the 2023 NFL season
Raiders defense ranked poorly according to Pro Football Network.
It has been a few years since the Las Vegas Raiders' defense struck fear in the hearts of teams around the NFL.
The last time the Raiders ranked in the top 20 in points allowed per game was in 2006. But those were the days when players like Warren Sapp and Derrick Burgess ran the show and collected double-digit sacks.
Those days of elite defenses and clutch stops are long gone, and Pro Football Network is predicting even worse in 2023.
Arif Hasan, a writer for Pro Football Network, recently ranked all 32 NFL defenses. And in Hasan's estimation, the Raiders will have the second-to-worst defense in the league.
"The Raiders didn’t lose astounding players in free agency, but they didn’t replace those losses with big upgrades either, except perhaps with Marcus Epps at safety. The biggest improvement comes from draft pick Tyree Wilson at EDGE overtaking Clelin Ferrell. But with a weak secondary and linebacker unit, it’s hard to call that enough to see substantial change."
Like the 2022 season, the Raiders expect the pass rush to cover the multitude of weaknesses at the second level of the defense. Specifically, there are still a number of questions at linebacker and defensive back that will force the defensive front to play above their expected level of production in order to produce timely stops.
But reality does suggest the Raiders don't need a next-level defense to be successful — the team just needs enough defensive production to pair with an offense that has enough weapons to make any contest interesting.
