Oakland Raiders Preview: Breaking down the 2019 cornerbacks

The Oakland Raiders made a lot of moves in the secondary this offseason, so let’s break down the cornerbacks for the 2019 season.

Coming off a season where the defense was ranked No. 19 in passing while allowing the most points per game in the league, the Oakland Raiders needed to address the secondary — and in both free agency and the draft, they did.

Gareon Conley and Daryl Worley, the starters from last year are both back, as is Nick Nelson. Lamarcus Joyner was signed to a four-year $42 million contract, in part to play nickel corner though he played safety last year and he may be the starter at free safety in base formations.

Nevin Lawson was also signed to a one year deal in free agency. In the draft, two corners were selected in Trayvon Mullen and Isaiah Johnson, in the second and fourth rounds respectively.

The position looks a lot deeper on paper than in previous years, so let’s go over what the Raiders have in store for 2019.

1. Returning Starters

Gareon Conley and Daryl Worley are back as starters from last season and while the overall defense was terrible last year, neither of these guys were real problems. Gareon Conley led the team in interceptions, tied with Marcus Gilchrist with three. PFF gave him an overall defensive grade of 64.0 which would put him as the #68 corner.

But that doesn’t look too good on the surface.

The grade of 64.0 was an overall defensive grade that doesn’t just take into account coverage, but also run support. In coverage, Conley was mostly solid and a year of being healthy proved those who compared the pick to D.J. Hayden wrong.

An interesting thing about Conley is that last year he held now teammate wide receiver Antonio Brown to his worst outing of the season — only recording 35 yards in the air and being one of only two games he did not record a touchdown last season.

Conley will be going into his third year, which is a year you usually see a lot of progress from players. Conley was already pretty solid last year and with improvement can be one of the better corners in the league this upcoming season.

Worley, on the other hand, was just average at best last year, receiving a 55.6 grade by PFF, ranking him as the No. 106 corner. He also gave up eight touchdowns last year according to Player Profiler while Conley only gave up two. He did give up fewer yards than Conley, but eight touchdowns, of course, means a lot more.

Worley is also still young at 24, so he can improve, especially with another year in the defense. But I think he is what he is at this point and that is a solid backup corner.