{"id":182978,"date":"2025-07-05T08:56:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T08:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/182978\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T08:56:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T08:56:18","slug":"putting-pressure-on-baker-mayfield-will-be-top-priority-for-raiders-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/182978\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting pressure on Baker Mayfield will be top priority for Raiders defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Raiders secondary vs. Mike Evans<\/p>\n

It’s not every day you line up against an anomaly at receiver like Mike Evans.<\/p>\n

At 31 years old, the 11-year veteran currently leads the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in touchdown receptions (seven) despite missing three games. The five-time Pro Bowler also ranks in the top three on his team in receptions (39) and receiving yards (521).<\/p>\n

What has made Evans such a matchup nightmare throughout his career is his unique blend of strength, size and speed at 6-foot-5, 231 pounds. He’s too big to cover for smaller cornerbacks and too fast to cover for more physically imposing defenders. Not to mention his impeccable route-running abilities that’ve allowed him to go for over 1,000 receiving yards in each of his first 10 NFL seasons.<\/p>\n

The Raiders could deploy multiple cornerbacks to take on Evans, including Jack Jones who leads the team in pass deflections (10). Rookie Decamerion Richardson<\/a> may also get a few cracks at the Bucs’ WR1 as he lined up in man coverage on nearly 45 percent of defensive snaps against the Chiefs, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.<\/p>\n

“There’s going to be a lot of different routes that he has not seen, or he’s not used to, and understanding splits where the receivers are on the field, where they are on the numbers,” Pierce said of how Richardson can continue improving. “I think for him, and we’ll do it again this week, just constantly focusing on his eyes, understand his leverage. Where’s your help, right? You’re not out there on an island. It’s not you out there by yourself. It’s team football, you got 10 other guys that can help you, so use your help.”<\/p>\n

Also keep in mind that Evans’ status for the game may be up in the air. He was a non-participant (hamstring\/calf) in Wednesday’s walkthrough, per the injury report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Raiders secondary vs. Mike Evans It’s not every day you line up against an anomaly at receiver like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,7,268,269,39878,20585,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-182978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-home-centerpiece","11":"tag-home-latest-stories","12":"tag-las-vegas-raiders-at-tampa-bay-buccaneers-2024-reg-14","13":"tag-news-versus","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-tampa-bay","16":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","17":"tag-tampabay","18":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114799797064628051","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182978","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=182978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}