{"id":130350,"date":"2025-06-14T22:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T22:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/130350\/"},"modified":"2025-06-14T22:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T22:32:09","slug":"raiders-could-field-new-look-starting-secondary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/130350\/","title":{"rendered":"Raiders Could Field New-Look Starting Secondary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking at how things are going in offseason workouts so far, there\u2019s a chance that the Raiders could see only one starter from last year\u2019s secondary return with the first-team defense in 2025. We already saw a free agent exchange at safety, with Tre\u2019von Moehrig<\/a> being replaced by<\/a> Jeremy Chinn<\/a> after signing with the Panthers<\/a>. Now, according to ESPN\u2019s Ryan McFadden, both of last year\u2019s starting cornerbacks are working with the second team<\/a> this summer. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In his report earlier this week, McFadden noted that, so far in Organized Team Activities, it\u2019s been free agent addition Eric Stokes<\/a> and rookie third-round pick Darien Porter<\/a> running on the first-team defense, while Jakorian Bennett<\/a> and Decamerion Richardson<\/a>, who tied for the second-most starts in the team\u2019s cornerbacks room last year, are getting reps on the second team.<\/p>\n

This shouldn\u2019t come as too much of a surprise. Last year, the Raiders didn\u2019t have a single cornerback rank in the top half of players at the position with enough snaps to qualify for Pro Football Focus\u2019s rankings system (subscription required<\/a>). Nate Hobbs<\/a> (72nd of 116) was the highest ranked corner on the team, and Jack Jones<\/a> (102nd) was cut after starting 16 games in 2024. Bennett (85th) and Richardson (114th) were then tasked with holding off Stokes, who ranked 72nd in Green Bay last year, and the rookie, Porter.<\/p>\n

Though Stokes has never started for a full season, he\u2019s got plenty of experience on first-team defenses after starting 32 of 45 appearances during his time with the Packers. Statistically and analytically, Stokes\u2019 rookie campaign was by far his best. That year, he started 14 games, nabbed an interception, and registered 14 passes defensed, earning him a ranking of 45th out of 116 cornerbacks, per PFF. After a disappointing start to his sophomore season, injuries set in. Stokes ended up missing 22 of 25 games leading up to last year, when he appeared in every game of the season.<\/p>\n

Porter\u2019s early starting role comes as a bit of a surprise. Coming into the NFL at 24 years old after a six-year collegiate career at Iowa State, Porter only has seven starts under his belt. Originally a wide receiver commit for the Cyclones, Porter switched to cornerback in his fourth year with the team. After serving as a rotational defender in his first two year on defense, Porter got all seven starts in his sixth year as the team\u2019s CB3. After only seeing four passes defensed in his first two defensive seasons, Porter broke out last year with five passes defensed and three interceptions. That meteoric rise appears set to continue in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

A fourth-round pick two years ago, Bennett started four games as a rookie. He started seven of the team\u2019s first 10 games last season as he tried to play through a torn labrum<\/a>, per Tashan Reed of The Athletic, but the injury worsened and led Bennett to undergo season-ending surgery<\/a>. Now, Bennett has two hurdles to overcome as he attempts to earn back a starting role while trying to get back to form following the surgery. Richardson was the one to step in for Bennett in the starting lineup to close out the season. Quarterbacks targeting Richardson completed 30 of 46 passes for 459 yards and three touchdowns during his rookie season.<\/p>\n

We still have a long way to go before the start of the season, so any number of updates could change the outlook for the depth chart. At the moment, though, it\u2019s looking like safety Isaiah Pola-Mao<\/a> could be the only starter from last year\u2019s secondary to return to his role in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Looking at how things are going in offseason workouts so far, there\u2019s a chance that the Raiders could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[1168,10369,482,7,10368,1744,393,2455,2454,6,525],"class_list":{"0":"post-130350","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-darien-porter","9":"tag-decamerion-richardson","10":"tag-eric-stokes","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-jakorian-bennett","13":"tag-las-vegas","14":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","15":"tag-lasvegas","16":"tag-lasvegasraiders","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-raiders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114684097115704306","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}