{"id":811311,"date":"2026-03-14T05:36:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T05:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/811311\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T05:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T05:36:21","slug":"the-raiders-are-cooking-in-free-agency-and-spyteks-recipe-starts-with-youth-and-grit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/811311\/","title":{"rendered":"The Raiders are cooking in free agency \u2014 and Spytek\u2019s recipe starts with youth and grit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>And have you heard what new defensive coordinator Rob Leonard &#8211; yes, the Raiders former defensive line coach &#8211; is installing?<\/p>\n<p>So how will the fast-moving and hard-hitting Walker fit as an inside linebacker next to Dean, a former college teammate at Georgia, along with Stokes and tight end Brock Bowers, in that new 3-4 base scheme?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m really excited to do that because I played with [Dean] before \u2026 so it&#8217;s just another opportunity for us to go out there and to showcase our talent and just to bring a type of energy, intensity, to the defense and just add to it. Just bring a whole lot of grit that the other guys can feed up on and, hopefully, they can match our energy, which I know they would. I know Rob is going to use us in the right way and set us up for success.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s going to fit perfectly. \u2026 I&#8217;m not going to go into everything, but I know he&#8217;s going to use me the right way, lining me up in different positions and just moving me all around so other teams can&#8217;t really recognize what I&#8217;m going to do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Then there&#8217;s the possibility of Paye lining up opposite Crosby to wreak havoc on opposing quarterbacks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s going to be crazy, man,&#8221; Paye said. &#8220;Just seeing him pursue and just his relentless pursuit throughout the down, just \u2026 to play with him and get after it. I played with [DT] Jonah [Laulu] in Indy for a little bit \u2026 playing with some ballers. It will be great.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And have you heard what new defensive coordinator Rob Leonard &#8211; yes, the Raiders former defensive line coach&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[103558,7,268,269,1744,393,2455,2454,5411,6,525],"class_list":{"0":"post-811311","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-2026-free-agency","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-home-centerpiece","11":"tag-home-latest-stories","12":"tag-las-vegas","13":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","14":"tag-lasvegas","15":"tag-lasvegasraiders","16":"tag-news-free-agency","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-raiders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116225912607824662","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811311","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=811311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}