All eyes are on Jakorian Bennett today with the pads finally coming on. The fourth-round pick from Maryland has an excellent chance of winning a starting job with a strong camp.
In a recent article by Pro Football Focus, they wrote about the one rookie with the most to gain during training camp. For the Raiders, that was none other than Bennett, who could see the most playing time of any rookie on the team.
Things could get ugly on the back end for Las Vegas this season if the secondary doesn’t exceed expectations. The team added Duke Shelley (86.4 coverage grade) — and recently Marcus Peters (69.5) — this offseason to a unit with no returning player who earned a grade above 61.3 in coverage last year.
That leaves room for rookies to earn snaps, perhaps both fourth-round cornerback Jakorian Bennett and fifth-round safety Christopher Smith. Bennett was one of 35 Power Five cornerbacks in 2022 to allow a sub-60.0 passer rating into his coverage (265 qualifiers), and he didn’t surrender a single touchdown on 49 targets.
With Nate Hobbs likely to slot into the slot in their nickel defense, that opens up the possibility of Bennett manning one of the outside cornerback spots along with Marcus Peters. But he’s going to have to win that job as the Raiders certainly won’t just give it to him.
The good news is that all of the news surrounding Bennett has been positive this offseason. It’s clear that the Raiders are excited about him and are going to give him every opportunity to earn a job during camp.
