Silver And Black Pride
Does Las Vegas’ young position group have anyone who can crack the top 5 in the division?
After losing Nate Hobbs in free agency and letting Jack Jones go, two starters from last season, the Las Vegas Raiders have a lot of question marks at cornerback heading into the 2025 season. With third-year pro Jakorian Bennett and rookie Darien Porter expected to lead the way, corner is a young position group on the Raiders’ roster.
So, does Las Vegas have a cornerback who has a strong enough track record to crack the top five in the AFC West right now?
2024 Stats: 4 INTs, 11 PDs, 45 tackles, 1 TFL
There’s no argument here. Surtain is the reigning Defensive Player of the Year and widely considered one of, if not the best, cornerbacks in the entire league. He led the position in both overall and coverage grades from Pro Football Focus last season, posting marks of 85.6 and 87.4, respectively. On top of that, the four-year pro has been a quality player throughout his career, recording 10 or more passes defended every season, making the Pro Bowl three times and earning two first-team All-Pro selections.
2024 Stats: 2 INTs, 13 PDs, 59 tackles, 6 TFLs
McDuffie was right behind Surtain last year when it comes to PFF grades, ranking second among corners with an 83.1 overall grade and sixth with an 80.6 mark in coverage. Also, he’s managed to make two All-Pro teams (first-team in 2023 and second-team in 2024), and is coming off career highs in interceptions and passes defended. What makes that even more impressive is that the 2022 first-round pick switched positions last year, going from a nickelback primarily to a boundary corner. So, he’s also a versatile player and can impact the running game, posting PFF grades in the 70s in that department over the last two campaigns.
2024 Stats: 4 INTs, 10 PDs, 62 tackles, 1 TFL
With only 12 starts to his name, it’s a small sample size for Still. However, the fifth-round pick exceeded expectations during his rookie season last year by earning the third-highest PFF grade among qualifying (minimum 298 snaps) AFC West cornerbacks with a mark of 74.1. More impressively, he logged snaps on the inside and outside, hardly skipping a beat between the two positions. The Maryland product projects to primarily be a nickelback this season, as he finished 2024 with the lowest yards per coverage snap (0.61) when covering the slot in the NFL. The arrow is certainly pointing up for Still.
2024 Stats (college): 5 INTs, 11 PDs, 67 tackles, 3 TFLs
Obviously, Barron doesn’t have any NFL experience yet, so it might be a bit ambitious to include him in the top five cornerbacks and ahead of the veterans listed below. However, he projects to play a prominent role in...
