Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Malcolm Koonce spills the tea on exactly what went wrong on defense last season
The Las Vegas Raiders finished last season with a bad defense and won just three games.
The Las Vegas Raiders feel like they’re in an amazing position right now—much better than last year. Then again, it’s not hard to beat that. They only won three games last season.
The offense was terrible, maybe the worst in the entire league. The defense started well but ended badly. Patrick Graham, the former defensive coordinator, is known for getting the most out of a team, even when the roster isn’t great. He’s done that for a while now, but it seemed the juice finally ran out.
“I think it’s extremely different. I felt like last year, sometimes people were in their heads, and maybe mentally we kind of lost our competitive edge sometimes. So, definitely this year feels like a complete turnaround,” defensive end Malcolm Koonce told reporters on Wednesday when asked if it feels different this year.
Malcolm Koonce describes the new feel around the defense
“Pretty good,” Koonce told reporters. “It feels kind of like a different building; everybody knows what the plan is, and everybody kind of thinks the same. We got a whole bunch of players that I think the most important thing to them is winning and being the best team we can be.”
The Raiders have had a handful of regime changes over the last few years. And sure, every year the fan base says, “This time feels different,” and every time it’s not. However, this time really does feel different. The Raiders really feel they have the right regime and team to at least get this thing headed in the right direction.
Now, does that mean this will be the regime to get them to the Super Bowl? Not necessarily. But this will be a regime that finally gets them going in that direction. The Raiders got their general manager and their head coach.