Silver And Black Pride
Las Vegas’ 3rd-round pick another size, speed marvel for a team lacking explosiveness
The Las Vegas Raiders seemingly turned back the clock in the 2025 NFL Draft going with some size/speed selections that OGs in Raider Nation are all too familiar with.
This shouldn’t be all that surprising considering the must-have throwback traits that the Silver & Black made priority are similar to new head coach Pete Carroll’s preferred characteristics.
Take cornerback Darien Porter, for example.
At 6-foot-3 and 195 pounds with 4.3-flat speed in the 40-yard dash, his athletic profile makes him a classic Silver & Black cornerback. Add in the 33 1/8 inch arms he boasts along with being a wide receiver initially in his first three years at Iowa State, Porter also is a classic Carroll corner.
“We’ve always looked for guys that are fast, long and tall because of the way we coach them,” Carroll said after one of the Raiders OTA sessions this past week.
By The Numbers:
Darien Porter, Cornerback, Iowa State
Porter’s defensive snaps gradually increased during his tenure at Iowa State with 2024 being the most productive. Porter earned 408 defensive snaps and racked up 18 total tackles, three pass deflections and a trio of interceptions. Opposing quarterbacks threw his way 15 times and Porter allowed a meager 26.7 percent completion rate.
With long arms and recovery speed to boot, Porter showcased the ability to shadow receivers and makeup for mistakes due to his fleet feet.
It’s the size, speed, intelligence, and former wide receiver traits that resulted in Porter garnering comparisons to another Carroll cornerback that blossomed under his tutelage: Richard Sherman. Carroll himself hasn’t shied away from the lofty comparison.
“There’s a lot of similarities in the makeup of these two kids,” Carroll said. “Richard’s history is pretty bright, so I have high expectations for how this works out with Darien, and he kind of fits the mold.”
And it’s easy to see.
Both are 6-foot-3 and 195 pounds, Porter las longer arms compared to Sherman’s 32-inch span, and the former’s 40 time is much faster than the latter’s 4.54 time.
But Sherman parlayed the elite combo of size, length, and speed to become a ballhawk in the Legion of Boom Seattle Seahawks secondary as a fifth-round pick and did so from the jump. Sherman had four interceptions and 17 pass breakups in his rookie year and after three seasons, the Stanford product snared 20 interceptions with 57 pass breakups.
Quite the lofty production if the comparison is to have merit, no?
(Of note: Sherman’s lone year as a cornerback at Stanford was in 2010 and he collected 50 total tackles with four interceptions in 13 games.)
Porter’s game as...
