Following the Raiders 45-20 home loss to the Buccaneers last week, Jon Gruden pointed to the Raiders lack of a pass rush as the primary factor. He vowed there would be changes made. Some thought that could mean a coaching change — specifically whether Paul Guenther would still be the defensive coordinator — but come Monday, Gruden assured everyone that he would not be making a personnel change.
Instead, Gruden said the changes would come by way of scheme and lineup.
Who really knows what he could do in terms of scheme to improve the fact that the Raiders had no sacks, one QB hit, and just three pressures on Tom Brady on Sunday. In terms of lineup, there seemed little options.
One of the few lineup options that didn’t involve signing a new player was to activate recent practice squad addition David Irving and give him some snaps.
Last Sunday, they elevated Irving from the practice squad only to make him inactive on game day. Saturday they activate DT Chris Smith and left Irving out altogether.
Smith was activated for one game this season. He played 19 snaps against Kansas City which was the game in which Maliek Collins and Maurice Hurst were both out. And Smith had a sack on Patrick Mahomes.
The team is allowed to call up two players from the practice squad each week, so they could have activated Irving as well and chose not to.
It would appear as if they don’t think Irving is quite ready yet. The former Dallas Cowboy hasn’t played a game since 2018, but he had 11.0 sacks in his last 13 NFL games. Meanwhile, Chris Smith has 9.5 sacks over his entire 7-year NFL career and his sack vs the Chiefs was just his second since 2018.
The question becomes how Smith’s presence changes the defensive line. Does he play inside, thus keeping Clelin Ferrell on the outside? Does he play outside to try and do what Ferrell and Arden Key have been unable to do this season? Namely get a sack.
