The phrase “big test” gets overused in the NFL because every week/game can fall into that category. So, the Las Vegas Raiders have a “significant exam” with their Week 3 matchup against the New Orleans Saints
, who have been a rising team in the league dating back to the second half of the 2025 campaign. But before that, let’s preview the game with this week’s mailbag!Q: With Hezekiah Masses emerging, Darien Porter playing well in Week 1, Eric Stokes already having one side locked down, and throwing
Jermod McCoy in the mix, how would you go about the cornerback rotation? Would you consider trying Porter, McCoy or Masses at nickel to get them on the field more, especially with Taron Johnson struggling a bit in coverage?
A: While I like what Porter brings to the table, and he played well in the season opener by allowing just one catch on five targets per Pro Football Focus, I think Masses has to start in New Orleans.
The rookie has better ball skills and has already created two turnovers in one start with his interceptions last week. Meanwhile, Porter has yet to record a pick in 11 starts. Plus, it was a pleasant surprise, but Masses also provided some run support with a couple of defensive stops last week. That’s another area of the second-year pro’s game that could use some improvement.
Now, I don’t think that means Porter has to ride the bench for the entire Saints game. Jermod McCoy saw the field on two series last week (one in the second quarter and another in the fourth) and ended up playing in 18 snaps, per PFF. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a similar rotation between Masses and Porter this week, and the split could be closer to 50/50 to see who can be the starter moving forward.
When it comes to putting someone at nickel, I dove into that in more detail toward the end of training camp (see the related article below). I’m a little skeptical of how that could work given Porter’s, Masses’ and McCoy’s skill sets. But it’s worth a shot since Taron Johnson isn’t playing particularly well in coverage. Also, part of my logic with Masses is that he can struggle against the run, but he already showed growth in that department.
I’ll throw this idea out there since the news about Treydan Stukes being out was announced as I’m writing this: put Johnson at safety, Masses at nickel and Porter on the outside on third-and-longs or in passing situations. With Stukes out, the other options at free safety are Isaiah Pola-Mao or Tristin McCollum, so I’ll take my chances with Johnson back there (LOL!). He has been rotating into the back end of the defense post-snap, and was working with the safeties a bit during training camp.
Circling back to McCoy, I’d be surprised if he’s still in the rotation if Porter is fully healthy. McCoy looked like he was spinning a bit last week with a handful of rookie mistakes that didn’t get exposed by the Chargers, but could be something the Saints target now that they have some film on the rookie. It seemed like the game was a little too fast for him last week. That’s fine; it was his first regular-season football game since 2024. But if the Raiders are trying to stay undefeated, the smart move is to keep him sidelined for now.
All of this being said, it’s not out of the question that Masses and Porter are the outside corners while Stokes is the odd man out. I don’t think that happens this week, but it’s something to monitor for the future if the young guys continue to play well. Stokes was a shutdown corner last year, but he’s struggling a bit right now.
To put it in perspective, Stokes has been targeted 10 times and given up six completions for 73 yards and a touchdown, and hasn’t forced an incompletion through two games. Two of the incompletions were off-target throws (where the receiver was open) from Malik Wills, one was a batted pass by Tonka Hemingway, and the other was the play where the Chargers tight end had PBU on a pass that was intended for a Chargers wide receiver (yes, you read that correctly).
Again, I don’t think it happens in the next week or anytime soon. However, if the young corners are playing well, the veteran has to pick it up to justify staying on the field.
Q: What do you think is driving the significant improvement in performance on the back end when you consider that a reasonable amount of these players were on the roster last year, and Joe Woods was also on the coaching staff working with the DBs last year too?
A: Rob Leonard.
I was skeptical of Leonard as the defensive coordinator because I didn’t know what types of coverages he’d run since his entire resume has been working with the front seven. I was also skeptical of the notion that he’d run Mike Macdonald’s defense because Leonard only worked under Macdonald for one year in Baltimore. I was wrong.
The Raiders are running a variation of the Seahawks’ defense where there are so many moving parts and complex pattern-matching coverages. On top of that, and this was something I did expect from Leonard, he’s calling a lot of stunts, simulated pressures, creeper blitzes, etc., to manufacture pressure. He got promoted to defensive run game coordinator last year, and Vegas was able to create so many negative plays in the running game because of the stunts and twists the defense was running, which wasn’t as prevalent in years past.
So, the combination of complex coverages and manufactured pressure leads to quarterbacks holding onto the ball longer, which gives the secondary more time to get to their responsibilities (a man or an area on the field) and helps the pass-rush hit home. I said this on the post-Chargers Tape Don’t Lie: The Raiders have a pair of mad scientists calling plays on both sides of the ball right now.
Q: What can we expect from Cody White for this next game? Also, if the confidence is there, can we expect more resting for Brock Bowers?
A: I wish I had a better answer for you about White, but I’m honestly not sure. I thought he’d get promoted after scoring two touchdowns last week, but he reverted to the practice squad. Now, the coaching staff gets one more call-up before they have to add White to the 53-man roster if he’s going to get elevated for a fourth time, so there is still a chance the wideout gets some action on Sunday.
However, White only has three targets and has only played 18 offensive snaps in both games combined. So, it’s not like he had a big role on the offense; he’s just made a couple of splash plays. Whether or not the latter is enough for him to get more playing time moving forward remains to be seen.
As far as Bowers goes, it seems like all signs are pointing to him playing this week. At this point, I’d be more surprised if he doesn’t play than if he does. I’m not saying I agree with that — in fact, I disagree with it, LOL — but I’m just reading the tea leaves from the last couple of weeks.
Q: Do you think John Spytek takes a shot at landing Marvin Harrison Jr.?
Especially if Spytek can get Harrison for pennies on the dollar, I’m all in on making that trade. Obviously, it hasn’t worked out in Arizona so far. But if you can get a guy who was the fourth overall selection two years ago who fills (or could potentially fill) a big need for a third- or fourth-round pick, go for it!
Look at it this way: round three has been Spytek’s Achilles heel so far. Porter is his best third-round selection but might have just had his starting spot taken. Caleb Rogers, Charles Grant and Trey Zuhn III aren’t seeing the field right now, and Keyron Crawford is injured. Sure, you can’t predict injuries, but Crawford probably wasn’t going to play very much this year anyway.
Why not take a flier on a first-round talent who would be under team control for the next three years with the fifth-year option and was a highly touted receiver prospect? Especially since the position is expected to be the Raiders’ biggest offseason need, and if they keep winning games, they’re not going to be in Jeremiah Smith territory anyway.
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Q: Has Tyler Linderbaum met expectations so far?
A: Linderbaum played really well in Week 1 but struggled with the Chargers because they have a collection of monster defensive tackles: Teair Tart (6-foot-2, 315), Dalvin Tomlinson (6-foot-3, 317) and Jamaree Caldwell (6-foot-1, 340). The knock on Linderbaum has always been that he’s light — he was below 300 pounds as a prospect and is currently listed at 305 — and struggles with big and physical defensive tackles.
So, he’s kind of batting .500 right now, which is below expectations for a player who got a record-setting contract at his position. But it’s only been two games, and last week was a tough matchup, where Los Angeles has several players who can attack his biggest weakness: size.
You definitely want to see a $27 million per year center playing better, but I wouldn’t get concerned at this stage. He is doing a good job at being the captain of the offensive line, getting everyone on the same page.
Q: Why do you think the offensive line struggled so much last week?
A: It’s kind of tied to my answer above; the offensive line as a whole got punched in the mouth and struggled to handle the Chargers’ defensive tackles. To be fair, Los Angeles was selling out to stop the run by loading up the box and making Kirk Cousins beat them, similar to what Miami did at the end of the Week 1 game. Cousins just answered the call.
For what it’s worth, not a single offensive lineman earned an above-average run-blocking grade from Pro Football Focus against the Chargers. There wasn’t much that was too complicated about it; Las Vegas just got beaten up and lost in the trenches.
It was kind of a flashback to last year for Ashton Jeanty. They should have more success this week, though, because the Saints don’t have as good of defensive tackles as the Chargers do. Not against the run, at least.
Q: It seems like Spencer Burford is just as advertised. I know Klint Kubiak likes him and he knows the “system,” but it doesn’t look like he’s improved. I hope Klint would be willing to switch to Caleb Rogers or the new guy from Seattle at some point. You?
A: I’m with ya. I was never thrilled that Burford’s starting spot wasn’t at least challenged during training camp. To me, he hasn’t done anything to suggest that he should be a sure-fire starter every week for the rest of the season. At this rate, I’d hope Rogers gets a shot to play. The problem is Jackson Powers-Johnson is still very inconsistent, so I’d be willing to bet Kubiak replaces JPJ before Burford, based on the fact that one of those guys had to compete to keep his spot and the other didn’t.
To be honest, I don’t know much about Bryce Cabeldue from Seattle. But he was inactive last week, and I’d imagine Trey Zuhn III would be an option at guard before Cabeldue is.
Q: Thought exercise: How do you think the first 2 games would have gone had the Raiders done the typical bad-team thing by starting their rookie QB at the beginning of the season?
A: I think they still beat the Dolphins because Miami is so young and the running game was really the driving factor for the offense’s success, where Kirk Cousins wasn’t anything special and held the unit back, if anything. But I have to give credit where credit is due, and Cousins put the team on his back in Los Angeles, handling pressure well and pushing the ball downfield.
Now, one of Fernando Mendoza’s strengths at Indiana was throwing under duress. So, I don’t think it’s a 100% lock that the Raiders would have lost last week if Mendoza was starting. But, on a surface level, a rookie quarterback making his second career start and getting hit 10 times doesn’t exactly equate to a winning formula.
This is definitely a good thought exercise in that I don’t think there is a hard answer.
Q: Should we expect the Raiders to cut a defensive tackle? Tonka Hemingway is the only one to play at least half the time, and JJ Pegues has not played at all.
A: I wouldn’t rule it out. It’s a week-to-week league when you’re on the bottom of the roster, and someone like Pegues is expendable if another position needs to be addressed or a better defensive tackle becomes available. But I don’t think it’s imminent or anything like that.
Hemingway is getting most of the snaps, while Foley Fatukasi, Adam Butler, Jonah Laulu and Thomas Booker IV are rotating with each other. There hasn’t been a defensive tackle who has particularly stood out in both games so far this season; Hemingway is the closest to that. But I don’t think anyone is playing poorly enough to justify getting cut.
Q: How much 3-4 is the defense actually playing?
A: I don’t have a hard number or percentage for you, but it isn’t that much. To be honest, the difference between a 3-4 and 4-3 scheme in today’s NFL isn’t what it used to be because defenses are in nickel personnel so much to get an extra defensive back in the game to defend the passing game. That means you only have six front seven (defensive linemen and linebackers) on the field.
So, unless a safety is in the box, the math doesn’t work out to run a true 3-4 or 4-3 front. Most teams like to stay in two-high nowadays to help prevent explosive plays in the passing game. As a result, defenses have shifted to using odd fronts with a 5-1 or “penny front” or a 4-2 look to get into even fronts. Rob Leonard has primarily leaned on both of those in the first two games, where Quay Walker lines up on the line of scrimmage and Kwity Paye slides inside to a 4i- or 5-technique, or Adam Butler/Jonah Laulu/Thomas Booker IV is at the 4i, in the penny fronts.
That being said, Tommy Eichenberg got three times more playing time in Week 2 than in the season opener (eight to 24 snaps at 35%, per PFF), while Walker (68) was still in the game for 100% of the snaps and Nakobe Dean (64) was in for 94%. So, Leonard did use more traditional 3-4 and 4-3 fronts against the Chargers, likely because Mike McDaniel likes to run the ball out of condensed formations and leans heavily on two tight end sets and/or 21 personnel with a true fullback in the game.
Condensed formations, two tight end sets and fullbacks can cause problems for a defense because the offense is creating more gaps in the running game by having more players near the offensive line. However, since it is a confined area, there’s less space that the defense has to account for. So, they can sacrifice some athleticism for defenders who can stop the run by getting out of nickel and into base personnel. That puts a third linebacker in the game while taking a defensive back out since the passing attack isn’t as much of a threat with fewer wide receivers on the field or a narrower formation.
It’s only a two-game sample size, but expect to see a variety of fronts from Leonard moving forward, as the game plan will likely vary from week to week based on the opponent. It’s not like last year, when the Raiders rolled out the same looks and personnel every game only to watch it fail miserably. In a way, we all got bamboozled by Kubiak this offseason when he made the 3-4 comment! Las Vegas has a multiple-look defense under Leonard.
Q: Should Kubiak have challenged the Justin Herbert strip sack?
A: Absolutely. Especially after the controversial review in the Saints-Lions game, which was basically the same play, happening the week before, you have to at least challenge that given the situation (late in the game and protecting just a three-point lead).
I’m not sure why it didn’t happen, but it was definitely a rookie head coach moment for Kubiak. Luckily, it didn’t hurt, and hopefully, he can learn from the mistake without having to pay the price for it. That could have cost the Raiders the game if it weren’t for Nakobe Dean’s forced fumble on the next play from scrimmage.
That’ll do it for this week’s mailbag. Thank you all for submitting questions and, as your weekly reminder, if you’d like to have your questions answered in a future column, tweet them at me, @MHolder95, email them to SBPQuestions1@gmail.com or look for our weekly call for questions on the site. The latter will continue to publish on Thursdays.
