Las Vegas Raiders fans shouldn’t overreact to one rookie making a bad play at OTAs for a few reasons
The Las Vegas Raiders held OTAs this week and last week, and Thursday’s session featured a rookie making what appeared to be a bad play.
On Thursday, the Las Vegas Raiders opened OTAs to the media for this week’s viewing period. The Raiders met last week at OTAs and will meet this week before next week’s four-day stretch, the last before mandatory minicamp.
On Thursday, there were reports of one of the rookies making what would come off as a bad play. The reality is, no one really knows if it’s a bad play or not.
Ryan McFadden of ESPN tweeted that Brock Bowers made a great play that resulted in a touchdown while safety Treydan Stukes was in coverage. There was nothing but space for Bowers.
Raiders rookie safety Treydan Stukes gave up a TD at OTAs, but it’s okay
There is an issue with this because fans are upset about this one play. Firstly, even the people at practice don’t know what the defensive play was, who was responsible for having Bowers, or what coverage they were in. There are so many unknowns. And if the people watching practice don’t know, the fans at home certainly don’t.
Yet there will be some flak for Stukes, and there shouldn’t be. Stukes is a rookie, playing in the NFL for the first time. For one, he’s “guarding” or appears to be, with the best tight end in the league. Giving up touchdowns to Brock Bowers is inevitable. Secondly, as we stated earlier, no one knows if it was his breakdown or someone else’s in the secondary.
Half of this fan base is upset the Raiders drafted Stukes. Some are upset because Stukes is an older rookie, and they have never heard of the guy. Some are upset because they want their team to draft a different position, like wide receiver. So, there will be fans already upset and overreacting to this play that is quickly making the rounds. The reality is, it’s OTAs, and these things happen. It’s better to get them out of the way now than in the season.
Stukes can be an elite player in the secondary. Last season in Arizona, he finished with a PFF coverage grade of 94.0. He was targeted 39 times, allowed only 23 catches for 200 yards, and allowed no touchdowns in coverage. Stukes had six forced incompletions. Stukes had a 34.4 passer rating allowed when QBs targeted him. He also didn’t commit a single penalty last year and hadn’t committed one since 2023. Now let’s see how that translates to the NFL.