Las Vegas Raiders’ biggest concerns are even more obvious after preseason loss to the Arizona Cardinals
The Las Vegas Raiders had a lot to learn after their preseason loss to the Arizona Cardinals, and most of it was on the defensive side of the ball.
The Las Vegas Raiders lost their first preseason game on Thursday. But we’ve already learned a lot from that loss, good and bad. For example, some of the rookies showed out, like Fernando Mendoza, Mike Washington Jr., Malik Benson, and so many others. But there was also some bad.
We got to see which areas of this team still need work in roster construction, from top to bottom. And it’s even more obvious now what the Raiders’ biggest concerns are as the regular season nears. And there will be more opportunities for those concerns to either improve or get worse.
Raiders’ biggest concern is the secondary
Last year, the secondary was terrible. We all know the only real bright spot was Eric Stokes. It was one of the worst secondaries we have seen the Raiders trot out in a long time, and that’s saying something. But there was optimism coming into this regular season for that group. And there should still be some optimism. I’m not sure the issue with the secondary is talent or a lack of good players. I think the issue is that they’re so young.
On Thursday, we saw all of the rookies and young guys get pretty much cooked over and over again. But Jermod McCoy and Hezekiah Masses were the two who were picked on the most. Masses made some good plays. McCoy looked like a guy who hadn’t played a lick of live football in two years.
Treydan Stukes had some moments, and of course, Isaiah Pola-Mao and Jeremy Chinn weren’t perfect either. Taron Johnson had a penalty that was both bad and good. He was beaten so badly by the receiver that he had to commit the penalty to stop him from scoring. Darien Porter struggled to guard, too.
When both teams’ starters were out, Marvin Harrison Jr. was destroying the secondary. When the backups came in, it turned to Michael Wilson and Reggie Virgil. No one in the secondary played perfectly, or even great. The Arizona Cardinals started the game 16/16 passing, and that’s from two different quarterbacks in Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew.
That’s just not something that can happen in the preseason or regular season. So, the secondary is obviously going to struggle at times this season because it is very young and the bodies just aren’t there yet. But you also have to remain optimistic.
This group is extremely young, and it feels like their time will come eventually. It was obvious before the season because of the unit’s inexperience, but now it’s even clearer that they can’t rely on the secondary to win them games in 2026.
