Silver And Black Pride
Starting with the Week 14 loss to the Denver Broncos, the Las Vegas Raiders are starting to give their rookies more opportunities to build some momentum heading into next season. Cornerback Darien Porter is one of the most significant 2025 draftees to see the field more often, recording 69 total snaps against the Broncos, and it’s fair to say that he had an up-and-down performance.
According to Pro Football Focus, Porter did miss two tackles and allowed three catches for 34 yards and three first downs. However, he was also targeted six times and came away with a pair of pass breakups to record a 67.4 passer rating when thrown at.
Of course, the numbers only tell part of the story, so let’s flip on the tape and break down a few notable reps, both positive and negative, from the third-round pick to see how he can build off this performance.
Porter had some issues as a run defender against the Broncos, logging a 40.6 PFF run defense grade. Part of the reason for that low mark is that the play above accounted for one of his two missed tackles.
That being said, there is a positive takeaway from this rep. The rookie has a quick transition from dropping into coverage to getting involved in the run fit and is in a perfect position to make the stop on third and one. However, he doesn’t run his feet on the tackle attempt, leading to the miss and first down for the Broncos.
So, while the result is poor and this goes down as a bad play, the corner at least gets to the right spot to give himself a chance to make the tackle and get the defense off the field. He just needs to finish better.
Moving on to what the Iowa State product primarily gets paid to do, cover.
About 90 percent of this rep is great. He lines up in soft-shoe press coverage (meaning no jam at the line of scrimmage) and stays in Courtland Sutton’s hip throughout the route. However, Porter is late in recognizing the back-shoulder throw, preventing him from being able to make a play on the ball. As a result, the Broncos’ No. 1 wide receiver comes down with the catch and gets the first down.
What’s encouraging, though, is that Porter made an excellent adjustment later in the game.
Denver comes out in a two-by-two set with condensed formation in the boundary (top of the screen), where Sutton lines up inside the numbers and runs a fade route. With Las Vegas in Cover 0, quarterback Bo Nix wants to go back to the well and take advantage of his top target one-on-one with a first-year player, especially since they’ve already connected on a back-shoulder throw against Porter.
However, the cornerback stays in phase and uses his hands at the top of the route so that he can feel his man and look back at the ball, similar to if he’s playing denial...
