The Raiders signed two high-priced linebackers in free agency, re-signed one of their three starters from last season, traded for another linebacker and drafted a player that they converted to linebacker. Yet, head coach Jon Gruden still isn’t satisfied. On Saturday, ESPN’s Field Yates reported that the Raiders are meeting with veteran linebacker Mychal Kendricks
Report: Raiders having in LB Mychal Kendricks for a visit
I don’t think Kendricks moves the needle, if he’s signed. Another attempt to plug the holes in the defense, that probably won’t do much unfortunately.
This is an absolute mystery. How is it that we seem to turn productive players into nonproductive players? You’ve got to think they’re signing players that will fit what they want to do. Yet every time it seems they fall flat, no matter how high profile or how much they spend. Cory Littleton is case in point. How do we explain his being a non-factor given his history of performance?
Matt, don’t forget Lamarcus Joyner last year. I am starting to be befuddled just like you by this complete lack of ability to get productivity out of free agents. Then, starts the frantic attempts during the season (which is too late) to try to get a guy (in this case, Kendricks) in the hope that they can magically produce. There is a reason Kendricks was not signed by a team and is still out there.
You are both right about the huge drop in the performance of most of our free agent signings on defense. In Joyner’s case it’s quite obviously Guenther’s fault – stubbornly forcing him to play out of position as a slot CB where he is clearly a dismal failure, while playing a strong safety Harris in Joyner’s natural role of a free safety, hurts us on both fronts. Misuse seems to be the case with Littleton as well – his recent statement “I can only do what I’m coached to do” is pretty clearly pointing in that direction. How do you go from one of the best tacklers in the NFL in one year to the worst in the next?
On the other hand, former defenders who consistently failed to perform in Raiders uniform immediately perform better when they join new teams – P.J. Hall, K. Joseph, G. Conley, D.J. Hayden, M. Edwards… How come other teams can instantly get more out of them than the Raiders?
The answer to all those questions seems to be Guenther – his chemes seem to consistently fail to put players into best positions to make plays. While the surprising second half defensive performance against the Chiefs won the game, don’t hold your breath for the repeat.
Aren’t you using a too broad brush, Steve? Why pick on Kwiatkoski?
How can you say he was ‘not any better’ than Littleton?! He is nowhere nearly as bad, he’s the only performing LB on the team by any measure! He’s not missing tackles at the rate of other LBs, let alone lead the team by a mile in that department as Littleton does. He’s not regularly blown away like a fly as Littleton is. Nor is he giving up over 40 yards per game and 7 yards per target in coverage. Neither are his tackles 20-30 yards downfield like Morrow’s.
With all the caveats about the PFF grading, his 69.2 grade is so far above Littleton’s 34.2 and Morrows 41.7 that it can’t reflect anything other than qualitatively better performance. The only issue with him is that he didn’t have the opportunity to contribute more due to his injury.