Raiders vs. Lions
The “primetime game” on this Friday night of preseason action featured two head coaches with new beginnings. Head Coach Matt Patricia for the Lions, sliding over from New England where he was the defensive coordinator, and Jon Gruden for the Raiders who was in his first game as a head coach since the 2008 season with the Buccaneers after deciding to make his way down from the broadcasting booth.
Matthew Stafford sat this game out, and so we got the washed up Matt Cassel to show us he has nothing left in the tank. The days of his New England success are a distant memory, especially when you look at how poorly he handled the 2 minute offense at the end of regulation. Jake Ruddock played game manager, completing over 50% of his passes but only at 4.4 YPA. For the Raiders, Derek Carr looked comfortable throwing short routes, but looked very timid on the intermediate to deep routes, ultimately going 2/4 with 11 yards on the night. Connor Cook looked like much more like a capable backup compared to Cassel on the other side of the ball, throwing a pretty touchdown where Ryan Switzer had to improvise his route coming back across the back of the endzone.
The Lions starting WR core in three-wide sets of Marvin Jones III, Golden Tate, and Kenny Golladay continue to be one of the scariest trio’s for NFL defenses, especially with Stafford under center. Expect a lot of targets going to all three of them with the run game lacking anything to brag about at this point. You should feel comfortable taking Tate in the 4th round, Jones in the 5th and Golladay anytime after the 10th round in 10-team PPR drafts this year. Brandon Powell showed some grit, posting a 5/34 line, but its hard to see any WRs outside the top 3 to have any fantasy relevance barring injuries. The Raiders couldn’t get anything going in the passing game, as the best route run of the night was from Johnny Holton (who?). The talk of the preseason has been the effectiveness of Jordy Nelson and Martavis Bryant. The former will be a starter and the latter is looking like a rotational deep threat right now, as his lone target from Derek Carr came on a bomb down the middle of the field that was ultimately underthrown.
In the run game, the rookie running backs were the stars of the show. Kerryon Johnson, a sleeper pick to lead the backfield in touches, is a rookie out of Auburn who was taken by the Lions with the 43rd pick in the draft. He showed elusiveness, a great first step, and great hands that could easily render Theo Riddick insignificant. The only question, as with many rookies, is his pass protection. It will be exciting to see how he looks in his first dress rehearsal with Matthew Stafford and evaluate if he can give Stafford enough time to push the ball down the field. If this happens, he has a good shot at leading this backfield in touches, however still expect LeGarrette Blount to be the goalline back. Feel free to take a flier on Johnson as he finished with 4 catches and 67 total yards. Chris Warren was a UDFA out of Texas who signed with the Raiders and he showed that he deserves to get another look as he fights for his roster spot, finishing with 13 carries for 86 yards.. The most impressive run of the night in the Raiders backfield didn’t even count when Marshawn Lynch burst through the left side and outran the safety for a 61 yard house call. Holding was called and the play was negated, but still, that was the most acceleration he has shown in recent memory. Barring injury, he is the man for the Raiders.
A quick defensive note, the Lions LB Kevon Kennard spent a lot of time in the Raiders backfield. With Matt Patricia as head coach and players like Kennard, Ezekiel Ansah, and Darius Slay, to name a few, the Lions defense should give the offense a lot more help than they are used to getting, allowing them to establish a more consistent running game.
-Matt Dean
If you count that INT as a knock against Dalton I can’t take seriously that you actually watched the game.
He forced it to a receiver while he was under pressure…
If you’re not taking Saquon or Odell in the first round id like to be in your league.
I agree with a lot of Mr Bevins assessments.. I liked how Hill looked, and Webb deserves to be watched closely…McCoy also looked good
I consider something genuinely interesting about your website so I saved to fav.