It’s week 3 of the NFL season, and the Washington Commanders will be facing the Las Vegas Raiders at home in Northwest Stadium in Landover, MD this Sunday at 1:00 pm EDT. The Raiders are a team in a massive state of flux, perhaps more so than any other team in the NFL right now. The most profound change for an NFL team is an ownership change, and although Tom Brady has only become a minority owner of the Raiders, majority owner Mark Davis seems to be letting him take an outsized role in re-shaping
the team. First, the Raiders hired John Spytek as the new GM of the Raiders. Spytek had previously played with Brady at Michigan before reuniting with him as part of the Front Office in Tampa Bay in 2020. The Raiders then hired Pete Carroll as Head Coach. Although he was a consensus choice, Brady reportedly had sought a defensive head coach and had immense respect for Carroll from Brady’s own playing days (as an aside, it also strikes me that Carroll is a coach known for his relentless positivity and energy – the opposite of Bill Belichick). Since then, the team has started rebuilding the roster and establishing a more professional football identity.
The Raiders won a somewhat low-scoring game against the Patriots in week 1, a game in which the Raiders defense managed to get 4 sacks and limit the Patriots to 13 points. The Raiders then lost an ugly game to the Chargers in week 2 in which they were unable to score a TD and QB Geno Smith threw 3 interceptions. After playing Monday night, the Raiders must travel on a short week to the East Coast to play a Commanders team that has had 10 days to prepare.
On offense, the Raiders are coached by OC Chip Kelly, whom Washington fans will remember from (among other things) his tenure running the Eagles in the good ol’ days when they had no Super Bowl victories. Kelly was known for a hurry up college spread offense, but has promised to bring something different to the Raiders. So far, the Raiders offense has skewed very pass heavy, with a 66% pass rate (4th highest in the NFL). One of the biggest problems for the Raiders offense has been their offensive line. The Raiders OL is ranked 22nd in the NFL in sack rate allowed and is the NFL-worst in run blocking, currently charted with -0.05 yards before contact (marking them as the only offensive line in the NFL with negative yards before contact, meaning their RBs are usually hit behind the line of scrimmage). This has done no favors for 1st-round pick RB Ashton Jeanty, who (despite handling most of the RB snaps) has managed only 81 total rushing yards in the last two games.
On defense, the Raiders are coached by DC Patrick Graham, whom Washington fans might remember as DC of the Giants under HC Joe Judge. Graham had earned enough respect from the Giants organization that they initially announced he would be retained by new HC Brian Daboll in 2022, before he was instead allowed to leave to coach the Raiders defense under HC Josh McDaniels. Graham survived several more hiring cycles, being retained as DC of the Raiders by HC Antonio Pierce and most recently by Pete Carroll. Although the Raiders defense has quite a few question marks from a personnel standpoint, Graham has been able to maximize their talents partly by moving around players along the defensive line to match up with weaknesses on the opposing offensive line, in particular moving around 2nd-Team All Pro DE Maxx Crosby. The Raiders were also the FA landing spot for SS Jeremy Chinn, formerly of the Commanders.
I asked Matt Holder of Silver & Black Pride five questions to better understand the state of the Raiders and what to look for in this game.
1) The Raiders have a new GM in John Spytek. How has he remade the roster and what seems to be his approach to building the team?
Spytek is going with a more long-term approach toward building the Raiders’ roster, focusing on drafting and developing players. That resulted in the Raiders letting several defensive starters over the last few years (safety Tre’von Moehrig, linebacker Robert Spillane and nickelback Nate Hobbs, to name a few) leave in free agency, replacing them with cheap free agents and draft picks.
That was frustrating for the fanbase since the Raiders entered the offseason with the second-most cap space in the NFL but chose to let players walk and didn’t spend money to replace them. That being said, the organization did open up the checkbook to reunite Geno Smith and Pete Carroll, giving the offense a competent and proven starting quarterback.
Ultimately, Spytek comes from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Over The Cap tweeted that the Bucs lead the league with 82.5 percent of their roster being “homegrown players”. That’s likely the model he’s looking to follow when it comes to the long-term vision with the Silver and Black.
2) What kind of offense is OC Chip Kelly bringing to the Raiders and what do you think of it so far?
It’s been a little underwhelming so far, seeing as Las Vegas is coming off a nine-point performance where the offense didn’t score a touchdown. The unit was better in the season opener against New England, but still only scored 20 points.
Kelly has veered away from the hurry-up style of offense that made him famous at Oregon and infamous during his first go-around in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers. The passing game is predicated on giving the quarterback options on all three levels and has an easy completion built in for each play, similar to a West Coast style approach. In the running game, Kelly is supposed to be known for his creativity, but the results haven’t been there yet as the Raiders have struggled to get off the ground with their ground game.
3) What kind of defense does DC Pat Graham run and what have the early returns been?
Graham has always prided himself on being versatile with both defensive fronts and coverages, staying away from sticking to one particular scheme. He likes to use multiple players off the bench and mix up looks to keep the offense guessing. That’s been the case this season and for the previous three seasons when he’s been the defensive coordinator.
So, the Raiders will use a lot of four- and five-man fronts while also mixing up coverages between man and zone. Graham has also been blitzing more this season during the first two games. The problem is that the defense lacks talent and depth in the secondary, making the unit vulnerable.
4) Who is one Raiders player on offense and one player on defense that Washington fans probably don’t know much about, but should?
Offensively, wide receiver Tre Tucker. The third-year pro is a speed demon who can be a deep threat and is finally playing with a quarterback who has the arm strength to maximize his skill set. Tucker is the third option in the passing game behind Brock Bowers and Jakobi Meyers, but has shown improvement over the last couple of seasons and is due for a breakout year.
Defensively, Commanders fans might know a little bit about cornerback Kyu Blu Kelly since he played in a couple of games for Washington as a rookie two years ago. Kelly has bounced around on a few practice squads since getting drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in 2023, but the Vegas native has found his home and has been the defense’s top corner in the first two games. He’s recorded a pass breakup in each of the two games and should have three on the year if it weren’t for a bogus pass interference call in the season opener. (Editor’s note – here is a reminder for when Kyu Blu Kelly joined Washington)
5) How should Washington go about gameplanning this matchup on both sides of the ball?
Offensively, it depends on whether Jayden Daniels is healthy, but I’d double-team/chip block Maxx Crosby and air it out. The Raiders have several good run defenders in the front seven, but they’ve struggled to get pressure outside of Crosby and lack talent in the secondary. That was essentially the Chargers’ game plan on Monday night.
Defensively, if Washington’s defensive tackles can take advantage of Las Vegas’ struggling interior offensive line, then trust them to stop the run and play a lot of two-high. Rookie running back Ashton Jeanty has struggled to get going because he’s constantly facing defenders in the backfield, and two-high coverages are Smith’s Achilles heel. Smith likes to force the ball down the field, and Los Angeles took advantage of that by running double-safety coverages 63.1 percent of the time (h/t The Athletic’s Daniel Popper). That’ll frustrate him and lead to some bad decisions because he doesn’t like to check down and likes to play hero ball.
A companion article to this with my answers to Matt’s questions will be linked as soon as it is available.
Thanks again to Matt Holder for taking time out of his day to answer our questions about the Raiders.
