The Raiders traded for former Eagles defensive tackle Thomas Booker back in August, where he’s become a semi staple of the Raiders defensive interior rotation.
The Raiders have heavily rotated between Adam
Butler, Jonah Laulu, Booker, and either Leki Fotu, JJ Pegues, or Tonka Hemingway this season to try and find some consistency on the interior and while that hasn’t succeeded, they have seen Booker develop into a quality player. Booker has logged 37 tackles, a TFL, 3 PBU, FF, FR, and 6 QB hits this season having yet to log a sack. Despite this, he ranks 4th among all NFL defenders with 7 created sacks (defined as a won rep resulting in the QB stepping into a sack via another players registered stat).
Additionally, Booker has logged 23 pressures this season including 7 in his last two games and 4 vs the Eagles. He is posting 14 run stops, a 44% run stop win rate, and 8.9% pass rush win rate which both rank inside the top 30 for defensive tackles. At just 26 years old, Booker has also played a career high in snaps at 494 which more than double his totals from 2022-2024 combined. The Raiders banked on Booker being a rotational player that could impact the defensive rotation early on and so far in his career he has done that. Booker through his last four games has a 14.8% win rate including a 17% mark vs the Broncos.
The Raiders pass rush issues have been prevalent this season ranking low in the NFL in sack rate, pressure rate, and pressure to sack rate. Despite this, the Raiders defensive line does have young talent requiring some needs of development which Rob Leonard has a historic track record of doing so. The 2025 Raiders have struggled, and Booker hasn’t been as flashy as some would likely hope him to be but the 4th year defensive tackle has seen a near 45% double team rate and as a result has created opportunities for other defensive lineman to clean up successful opportunities in what has been a weak year.
