Silver And Black Pride
Las Vegas gets swept by Denver but young players show some promise
The Las Vegas Raiders’ Week 12 29-19 loss to the Denver Broncos in Week 12 makes it seven losses in a row for the Raiders as the team hasn’t won a game since September. However, there are a few silver linings for the Silver and Black as a handful of young players showed promise on Sunday, providing a glimmer of hope for this week’s winners and losers.
Wilson has faced plenty of scrutiny during his first year and a half in the NFL, but he’s been playing well recently with a sack in three out of the last four games. Specifically on Sunday, the 2023 first-round pick got to the quarterback once, logged three pressures and had three defensive stops, including a tackle for loss, according to Pro Football Focus.
Those are positive steps for Wilson, who has recorded a good 75.5 PFF run defense grade so far this season.
To be clear, Minshew’s broken collarbone that will end his season isn’t the reason why he lands on this week’s losers list. It was a collection of missed throws, several being what should have been “gimmes” around five yards or less past the line of scrimmage.
Also, he managed to throw his 10th interception of the year, currently tied for the fourth-most, and likely would have lost the starting job to Aidan O’Connell next week even if it weren’t for the injury.
Denver made a concerted effort to take away Brock Bowers and Meyers took advantage of that by logging 10 catches for 121 yards, both being the second-most he’s had in a single game during his six-year career. This also makes it two 100-yard outings in the last three games for the wideout as he’s stepped up after Davante Adams’ departure.
McCormick has been around since 2022 but made his regular season debut this weekend and had a pretty good showing. While he only had five carries, the former Roadrunner made the most of them with 33 yards to average 6.6 yards per rush. He showed some impressive vision and agility on a 19-yard rush to potentially earn more play time during the final stretch of the season as the Raiders search for a long-term solution at running back.
This one goes against the theme of young players performing well. With Jakorian Bennett out, Richardson made his first NFL start and had several “welcome to the NFL” moments at the hands of Courtland Sutton. According to PFF, the veteran wideout caught four of four targets for 46 yards, four first downs and a touchdown against the rookie.
Richardson did manage to log a PBU but also gave up a 24-yard reception to Devaughn Vele, surrendering five catches on eight targets for 70 yards on the afternoon.
Meredith continues to stack up strong performances...
