When the Raiders selected safety Johnathan Abram in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft, they picked him to be the enforcer and leader of the defense. He was one of the most fearsome hitters in SEC history and his speed and athleticism were too much for Mike Mayock and Jon Gruden to pass up.
Abram injured his shoulder in Week 1 of the 2019 season and missed the rest of the year. Once he returned in 2020, he slid back into the starting lineup and into the enforcer role. Unfortunately, that hasn’t quite gone as well as the Raiders had hoped.
According to Pro Football Focus, Abram is currently the league’s second-lowest graded safety in the NFL. His biggest weakness comes in coverage as teams have exposed him in that area of the game all season. Per PFF, he’s the second-worst coverage safety in the NFL and that shouldn’t be all that surprising considering that was his weakness in college too.
Abram’s lack of coverage skills and awareness is starting to become too difficult to ignore. In the most important play of the game in Week 11, Abram abandoned his assignment, leaving Travis Kelce wide open in the end zone for the game-winning score.
Oh man… Johnathan Abram…. dude. pic.twitter.com/KjwprAMnjS
— Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) November 23, 2020
How valuable is a safety in today’s NFL that struggles in coverage? Not very. What about a player that has the second-most penalties among safeties? That’s another story as Abram’s tendency to draw personal foul penalties are starting to pile up and he’s not making enough “big” plays in order to counter the antics.
The Raiders invested a lot in Abram. But right now, he’s not playing at an elite level. In fact, if he wasn’t a first-round pick by the current regime, he probably would have been benched already. They need him to play a more controlled-brand of football in order for this defense to be successful. But is that in Abram’s DNA? If not, this might not be a player that fits in the modern-day NFL.
Simply put, the Raiders need more out of Johnathan Abram. But if the same level of play continues, will they have the guts to bench him and potentially admit defeat? What happens here over the next six games will tell us a lot about Abram and this coaching staff going forward.
