Heading into the Week 6 matchup against the Tennessee Titans with a 1-4 record, the Las Vegas Raiders should be looking to give younger players on the roster more prominent roles moving forward. One of the biggest candidates should be rookie cornerback Darien Porter.
With Eric Stokes out last week, Porter made his first NFL start against the Indianapolis Colts. He also came off the bench in the two prior games and has been solid so far. He’s given up just one catch for nine yards on three targets
and made a few tackles as a run defender to earn a 69.2 grade from Pro Football Focus in the limited action.
While Stokes could return from injury this week, the rookie has earned more playing time moving forward. Part of the reason for that is the Raiders’ other starting outside corner, Kyu Blu Kelly, has been struggling recently. Porter got some action in Weeks 3 and 4 as a result of Kelly’s play. So, how often the second-round pick is on the field this Sunday will certainly be noteworthy, and he faces an interesting matchup.
Calvin Ridley has been a 1,000-yard receiver in each of the last two seasons and had nearly 1,400 yards in 2020 before suffering an injury that limited him to five games in 2021 and serving a year-long suspension for gambling in 2022. Ridley and Titans’ rookie quarterback Cam Ward didn’t hit the ground running to begin the campaign this fall, but they did connect five times for 131 yards against the Arizona Cardinals last week.
Also, Tennessee has an intriguing rookie receiver in Elic Ayomanor, who has the team’s only receiving touchdowns (two) in the early stages of the season. Ayomanor is a strong contested catch receiver, hauling in seven of 13 such targets (53.8 percent), per PFF, to test Porter in a different way than Ridley and set up an interesting one-on-one battle between first-year pros.
The point is, this could be an interesting game for Porter as he looks to establish himself as a starter in Las Vegas. So, let’s keep tabs on him for this week’s gameday topic in The FEED.
The Raiders and Titans will kick off at 1:05 p.m. PST on Fox (check your local listings). Head over to The FEED if you’re interested in joining this live conversation. I look forward to talkin’ some ball with y’all!
