Raiders: Complete 2019 season rookie report card
By Nico Di Fede
CB. Round 2 Pick 8, Clemson. B. Stats. Pick Analysis. 28. Trayvon Mullen. player
Trayvon Mullen had a rough start to his career. In Week 1, Gareon Conley exited the game with a neck injury and Mullen had to fill in as the starter for the remainder of the day.
Mullen played 19 snaps and gave up three catches including a 53-yarder and a touchdown in the red zone. In Week 2, the entire secondary struggled against the Kansas City Chiefs, giving up 28 points in one quarter.
Mullen stepped up in Week 3 against the Minnesota Vikings but saw little playing time in the following three weeks until Week 7 against the Houston Texans after Conley was traded.
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Against Houston, Mullen was sticky in coverage only allowing two catches for 10 yards against the great DeAndre Hopkins and a talented Kenny Stills.
The Raiders faced Detroit the next week where Mullen again played solidly, recording six tackles and not giving up any big catches. That solid play mostly continued, as the Clemson product played well in the next three of four games, only struggling against the New York Jets.
And he finished the season on a high note as well as easily the best player in the secondary. Per PlayerProfiler, Mullen gave up 42 catches for 597 yards and three touchdowns.
Not many rookie cornerbacks saw significant playing time this year, and after looking at those same stats of those who did, Mullen is definitely in the top-five, with Rock Ya-Sin and Greedy Williams being the only ones who definitely played better.
I will be doing a detailed comparison on this in the coming week so look out for that.
All in all, Mullen had a solid rookie season playing a position where most tend to struggle early and while Mullen did have some downs, he had more ups and showed the potential to be the Raiders top cornerback of the future.