Providing flexibility
After being selected in the third round by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2019 NFL Draft, he quickly emerged as a leader of their defense.
By his second season in the league, he was named their full-time starting middle linebacker – recording 88 starts in his tenure. He hasn’t missed a game since 2022 and led the Bengals in tackles last year (80 solo, 143 combined).
It’s also worth noting that Pratt has experience playing inside and outside linebacker throughout his career, bringing the ability to be interchangeable in the Raiders defense.
“[H]e’s a really hard-nosed kid, tough kid, played a lot of football, has been really healthy, has played all of the positions to give us a flexibility that really will help us,” Pete Carroll said of signing Pratt. “We’ve been really pleased with Elandon [Roberts], he did a great job of taking over the leadership position and calling everything, and Devin [White] has done a really nice job too. To put these three guys together where they’re on the field at the same time, that’s a loaded-up group. And they’re all tough and they’re all physical and they’re all downhill players, which is the style that we love to play with.”