Oakland Raiders: Predicting The Team’s Final 53-Man Roster

Linebackers (7)

Starters: Bruce Irvin, Cory James, Jelani Jenkins

Reserves: Marquel Lee, Tyrell Adams, Nicholas Morrow, Shilique Calhoun

The linebacker spot has been a story for the last couple of seasons – primarily because they can’t seem to get decent play out of the position. They certainly haven’t had linebackers capable of defending both the run and the pass – as evidenced by the long list of tight ends and running backs burning them on short and intermediate pass routes.

Malcolm Smith, Curtis Lofton, Ben Heeney, Neiron Ball – the list of players they’ve had playing linebacker is long and well documented. And the only player they’ve had recently who’s found a modicum of success was Perry Riley Jr. – who remains a free agent.

In the fifth-round of the Draft, they tried to address the weakness at the position by taking Marquel Lee out of Wake Forest. The middle linebacker position was basically his to lose. And based on his performance over the course of the preseason, he should probably lose it.

Lee has flashed – a little. He’s made a few plays. He’s also made a ton of rookie mistakes and has shown that he’s not going to be an immediate impact player, but with some time and development, could be serviceable.

Last year’s fifth-round pick, Cory James, is showing that the team’s patience with him is paying off. He’s flown under the radar this summer, but has quietly put together a respectable resume over the course of the exhibition season and should be in line to take the green dot to start the year.

Bruce Irvin and Jelani Jenkins have had solid summers as well and will likely start at the strong and weakside respectively, when the Raiders are in their base 4-3 alignment.
Tyrell Adams has been pretty good this summer and should be in line for a roster spot. And Nicholas Morrow, out of tiny Division III Greenville is one of the summer’s best stories. He’s flashed some big time ability and looks like he could be a very valuable rotation piece.

The big question mark in the linebackers group is second-year man Shilique Calhoun, who hasn’t really done much to distinguish himself at all this summer – and this, after a “meh” rookie season. He’ll likely hold on to his roster spot, because McKenzie used a third-round pick on him and will probably want to see if he can develop at the position.

LaTroy Lewis has had some nice moments this summer, including two sacks and two tackles for a loss against Arizona, and a fumble recovery returned for a 65-yard touchdown against Dallas. He’s probably going to get lost in the numbers game, given the likelihood of the team hanging on to Calhoun, but is a very prime candidate for the practice squad.