Standing nearly 6-foot-3 and 195 pounds with blazing speed, Darien Porter was a prototype cornerback for the previous Las Vegas Raiders coaching staff — particularly head coach Pete Carroll.
The Carroll architype is a tall, long-armed, and fast cornerback and with his height, 33 1/8-inch arms, and 4.30-second timed 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine, Porter checked off all the boxes and general manager John Spytek made the Iowa State product the Raiders’ third-round pick (68th overall) in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Now it’s offensive-minded Klint Kubiak, a rising star creative play caller at the helm of the Silver & Black as head coach and instead of Patrick Graham at defensive coordinator (he’s now with the Pittsburgh Steelers orchestrating their defense), it’s fellow rookie coach Rob Leonard running the defense in Las Vegas. And the 25-year-old cornerback is once again trying to make an impression and earn starting snaps once more — albeit against a restocked cornerback room that has more youth, promise, and — let’s face it — quantity and quality that Porter didn’t face in his rookie season in 2025.
While he did play in all 17 games and notched 10 starts — playing 607 snaps on defense and 155 more on special teams — and garnered first-team reps in offseason practices and training camp, the fight for the outside starting gig opposite Eric Stokes is wide open.
And that’s where the Year 2 bar starts for Porter: Securing the definitive CB2 spot.
By The Numbers
Darien Porter, Cornerback, 2nd Year
- 2025: 17 games (10 starts), 42 total tackles (29 solo), 3 pass deflections, fumble recovery
- Career: See above.
The Competition
Determined to not only get looks but turning those reps to showcase their better options, there are two 2026 draft picks and a resurgent 2024 selection vying for the CB2 job alongside Porter.
Hezekiah Masses, the Raiders fifth-round pick in this past draft, is a standout story this offseason. The University of California product made the coaching staff notice and jumped right into the fray with first-team reps throughout the offseason and now in training camp. The 22-year-old brings good size at 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds.
Fellow draft classmate Jermod McCoy, taken in the fourth round, is on a managed workload plan as he suffered an ACL injury in 2025. The 20-year-old Tennessee product had first-round talent with the ball skills to be a thief in the secondary. Working with the lower units, McCoy (6-foot and 193 pounds) is a wild card as his potential is tremendous, health permitting.
Lastly, Decamerion Richardson is having a Raider revival. The 112th overall pick in the 2024 draft fit the Pete Carroll prototype at 6-foot-2 and 192-pound cornerback with his 32 3/8-inch arms and 4.34 speed. But he didn’t see a snap on defense last year. Displaying tight coverage in practices, the upward trend is good for the 24-year-old.
Porter is no slouch in practice with his first-team reps. He’s as sticky and nuisance as his fellow cornerbacks and like Masses, Porter snared an interception in practices.
That all said, it’s a wide open competition and Las Vegas is eager to see which cornerback showcases the grit and win the gig.
“I was listening to Kirk Cousins talk about the quarterback competition,” Raiders defensive coordinator Rob Leonard began when asked about having a young secondary. “It’s like they’re competing, but you’re not lined up out there against the other guy. So, in the room, it’s like you’re competing against yourself, the other guy, if he made a play, you want to make a play. They all are such different players in how they play corner. It’s nice to see the brotherhood in there and then watch them out here compete trying to help each other. ‘How do you see this?’ ‘How do you do that?’”
Areas of Opportunity
To separate himself from the rest of the hungry pack, Porter needs to not only showcase the ability to cover and take the ball away consistently, he must show improvement as a tackler. While he did rack up 42 total tackles in his rookie season (29 solo), Pro Football Reference charted the cornerback with five missed tackles and a 10.6 missed tackle percentage.
Raiders safeties coach Matt Robinson’s time at the podium during a post practice press conference made the point of tackling very clear.
“And especially as DBs, everybody thinks interceptions, picks, PBUs, but you’re going to be in a position to block destruction and tackling way more than you will be making true plays on the ball,” Robinson began, “You’re going to have more tackles than you are picks and PBUs. So, that messaging of style of play and being a physical defense and when you come out everybody’s expected to tackle, everybody’s expected go smash stuff, so I’m excited.”
Of the aforementioned names above, Richardson and McCoy arrived to the NFL with reputations as sound tacklers in college. Masses showcased the physicality and willingness to mix it up but his slender and wiry frame is limiting. And then there’s Porter, the weakest in that area of the group. This is where wide receiver-turned-cornerback hurts Porter as his open-field tackling is amiss with poor angle and technique where the cornerback was either lunging or arm-tackling instead of wrapping up physically.
Where converting from pass catcher to defender helps Porter though is in coverage. At his size, length, and speed he’s show glimpses of a sticky and smothering cornerback he can be on the perimeter. With the entire defense playing aggressive and fast like Leonard wants, it opens up opportunities for defensive backs to gamble and make plays on the ball — something that Robinson highlighted as the vital, too.
“I think they’re just feeling the pressure of we got to play fast, we got to play aggressive, but we got to know what to do and be disciplined in the back end so the ball doesn’t go over our heads,” Robinson said. “But we got to be able to trust our eyes and then go make plays because this league is all about the ball. If you take the football away, one, you make yourself some money, and then you win games because of the turnover ratio.”
The Bar
Claiming the CB2 job opposite Stokes is the ultimate end goal for Porter. Competition breeds excellence and the fight for the role isn’t expected to temper soon. The secondary needs various starters to either ascend or maintain a higher level of play and perhaps competition breeds competence will suffice.
Playing not only in all 17 regular season games but starting them is apt for Porter with 48 total tackles (34 solo), an interception, and 8 pass breakups is a reasonable Year 2 bar.
