Heading into Sunday’s regular season debut against the New England Patriots, the Las Vegas Raiders were encountering a bit of a problem.
Cornerback has started to emerge as a weakness heading into the regular season slate. Eric Stokes and Darnay Holmes are the two current projected starters, but both have been plagued by inconsistency in recent years. The other spot was not locked down by anyone during the preseason, either, which is a concern that no one has pulled away at this point.
For the first time, however, fans finally have an idea of what the Raiders are going to do.
The Raiders have the first option in the cornerback rotation selected.
Releasing their first depth chart of how the team will look against the Patriots, the Raiders currently show Kyu Blu Kelly getting the first crack at the starting role.
It indicates that Kelly has beaten rookie Darien Porter and second-year cornerback Decamerion Richardson for the spot, putting the cherry on top of what was an excellent preseason. However, just because Kelly has the job for now does not mean he can simply rest on his laurels. Head coach Pete Carroll has already indicated that he will use a number of guys opposite Stokes, suggesting that Kelly could get moved around at the first sign of trouble.
“We’ve got really good competition over there on the other side and we’ll see how that works out by the end of the week, we’ll keep it going,” Carroll said. “A number of guys will play in the game (against the Patriots). You’ll see a lot of guys will be rolling through there.”
Needless to say, cornerback is something worth looking into if this season does not go the way the Raiders and their fans hope.
Raiders make modifications to practice squad before Week One
