At 1-3, the Las Vegas Raiders’ season is hanging on by a thread heading into the Week 5 matchup against the Indianapolis Colts. The Raiders have backed themselves into a corner where Sunday feels like
a “must-win”. But first, let’s get to this week’s mailbag.
Q: Without grading on a curve or mercy, what overall grade do you give the Raiders for the first quarter of the season? Better yet, why that grade?
A: If we’re not using a curve, it has to be a D.
Las Vegas is sitting toward the bottom of the NFL standings and just lost back-to-back winnable games, facing the Commanders with a backup quarterback and a Bears team that’s still finding its identity. So, one could argue that the record is even worse than it looks. For example, the Texans and Ravens are both 1-3, too, but two of Houston’s losses are to the Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay, while Baltimore has fallen to Buffalo, Detroit and Kansas City.
The saving grace for the Raiders or reason for optimism is that the majority of the team appears to be headed in the right direction. The defense has been better than most people (myself included) expected, and the offensive line is coming off its best performance of the season. But they still can’t figure out the most important position on the field, as Geno Smith is holding the team back right now.
If Smith starts playing like he did in Seattle, then there will be more reason for optimism in Las Vegas. The problem is that he and the organization are running out of time to salvage this season.
A: It certainly isn’t looking good for this season. The way I see it, NFL teams get one bad month if they’re going to make the playoffs, and the Raiders already used theirs. So, there is time to turn it around, but they can only afford to lose one game per month the rest of the way out. They can probably have one month with a 2-2 record or balance it out with a four-game winning streak, but the point is, the margin for error is very thin the rest of the way out. Otherwise, the focus should shift to the young players on the roster and building for the future.
Q: Communication and responsibility in secondary is still off heading into Week 5, especially Isaiah Pola-Mao on the TD against the Bears. How do the Raiders get this fixed?
A: This is something that’s been frustrating for me too this season, and unfortunately, there is no magic fix other than simply communicating/talking to each other pre-snap to make sure everyone is on the same page. That can get easier as players get more live reps and become more familiar with each other, like any relationship.
Miscommunications are part of the problem with having so much roster turnover, and it takes time for everyone to get comfortable playing together. In other words, I think we’re seeing the results of the Raiders having a significant amount of turnover in the secondary this offseason.
Now, when it comes to Pola-Mao, he’s had issues with lapses in coverage going back to last season, too. I don’t know how much leash he has with the coaching staff, but it’s getting to the point where he needs to figure it out and be more consistent, or it’s time to give someone else a shot to prove themselves.
Q: How many games until we see Charles Grant?
A: I get that people want to see Grant on the field now that Kolton Miller is out and the rookie hasn’t even been active for a game yet. But personally, I’d rather see the coaching staff stick to the plan with Grant rather than throw him into the fire before he’s ready.
He’s making the jump from FCS to the NFL and has always been considered a project who needs time to develop. That showed in the preseason as Grant struggled in at least two out of three games. There’s a reason why Thayer Munford Jr. made the 53-man roster initially, and Las Vegas claimed Stone Forsythe off waivers at the end of training camp.
Especially at 1-3 with a season that feels like it’s quickly headed nowhere, there’s no reason to throw the rookie into the fire before he’s ready and risk him losing confidence. So, I don’t think we’ll see Grant play until at least next month, when the second half of the season begins.
A: Because Forsythe was one of the worst tackles in the NFL during his time in Seattle. To put it in perspective, Pro Football Focus had him on the hook for 35 pressures last year, which ranked in the bottom 20 at the position, and he only played in six games. On top of that, he wasn’t much better in the running game and got cut by the Giants this summer, despite New York beginning the season with an injured Andrew Thomas.
Chip Kelly can give Forsythe some help with play-action, chip blocks, etc. But Kelly can only do so much without sacrificing his entire playbook, especially since it’s not like DJ Glaze has proven that he can be left on an island for an entire game. It’s hard to put together an effective game plan when both offensive tackles are going to need help.
Hopefully, Forsythe finds his footing in Las Vegas, but I wouldn’t expect that given his track record.
As a quick sidebar, follow this link to check out Homage’s collection of Raiders’ gear!
Q: Why does Jack Bech play so little offense? Tre Tucker is the veteran deep threat and Dont’e Thornton has not been able to carry his performance from training camp into games thus far.
A: That’s a good question and one I’ve had over the last few weeks. My best guess is that the coaching staff views Bech as primarily a slot receiver/Jakobi Meyers’ backup, and doesn’t think the rookie can be effective on the outside. But I agree with you, it’s time to give Bech a chance. He’s been effective on the few times he’s been called upon, so let’s see what the second-round pick can do with a bigger workload, especially since Thornton hasn’t done much outside of the season opener.
A: The early returns are certainly poor for John Spytek. The Raiders are underachieving, and the big fish he landed in the offseason, Smith, is the biggest reason for that. Also, outside of first-round pick Ashton Jeanty, the team has gotten little to nothing from this year’s draft class so far.
However, I mentioned this last week, Spytek was clearly playing the long game during last spring, especially with the draft by taking several high upside projects: Darien Porter, Grant and Thornton being the best examples. So, I understand the frustration, but I’m not ready to write Spytek off. He was widely considered one of the top up-and-coming general managers in the offseason, and it takes time to rebuild a roster.
A: LOL! I’ll say this: the three that frustrate me the most are the ones where he struggles to adjust when a safety is playing the middle linebacker spot in Tampa 2. That happened against the Chargers, where Derwin James Jr. tipped the ball and Donte Jackson got the pick in the endzone, and the first two to Kevin Byard last week.
Geno is a well-tenured veteran quarterback who shouldn’t be making the same mistake twice, let alone three times. I also put the ones where he’s been staring down his receiver in the same category. He’s been around way too long to be making rookie mistakes like that.
To be honest, I didn’t pay enough attention to Tre Tucker last week to give an educated/informed answer to your second question. However, in previous weeks, Tucker has been getting open and not getting the ball.
A: I think the Raiders were most likely going to draft a quarterback this year anyway, but the first month of the season has certainly pushed the urgency. The problem is that prospects like Arch Manning, Garrett Nussmeier, Drew Allar and Cade Klubnik haven’t been playing particularly well this year, weakening the class a bit.
But keep an eye on guys like Feranndo Mendoza, Dante Moore and LaNorris Sellers over the next few months. I’ll throw Nussmeier in there too because, of the four underachievers, I think he has the best chance of turning things around.
A: LOL! Well, the Raiders have a bye at the end of the month, so they only have three chances to lose a game, while the Dodgers can lose three games in a week (except for the division series) and still be alive. That being said, the Dodgers’ lineup and starting rotation are filthy, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they only lose two games the rest of the way out. They just have to get that bullpen figured out, and moving Clayton Kershaw back there could be a good solution.
I love this time of year because we get postseason baseball along with plenty of football, so either way, I’m excited to watch!
A: I’ve seen a few people asking about this since SB Nation switched platforms, so I figured I’d sidebar and use this as an opportunity to spread the message in case anyone else has the question.
Fanposts has been replaced by our new feature: The FEED. It’s basically the same format where you can share anything that’s on your mind or join discussions that other people have brought up. We also hold a gameday discussion on The FEED, where you can join yours truly to discuss a specific topic live during the game. This week’s topic is Geno Smith versus Lou Anarumo.
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.
