Do the Raiders have enough elite talent at top of roster?

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Saturday, Sept. 5, 2020 | 2 a.m.

Cut-down day in the NFL tends to put the focus on the bottom of the roster, obviously, but with a week to go before the start of the 2020 season this is also a good time to assess the top of the Raiders’ roster.

There are a bunch of different ways to construct a competitive team in the NFL. Some franchises start with a highly paid, veteran quarterback and fill in the gaps around him. Others opt to draft young QBs and spend freely at other positions while the passer is on his rookie contract. And so on. No two rosters are built exactly the same way.

But there is one thing that just about every good team has in common: elite talent.

Last year’s Super Bowl winner, the Kansas City Chiefs, sported top-end talent at quarterback (Patrick Mahomes), tight end (Travis Kelce), wide receiver (Tyreek Hill), defensive tackle (Chris Jones) and safety (Tyrann Matheiu). Mitchell Schwartz is graded as the league’s top offensive tackle. That’s the definition of a high-ceiling core, and it ended up working out pretty well for KC.

The goal for any front office is to accumulate excellent players. Have the Raiders done that under Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock?

Over the past two weeks, Pro Football Focus released its individual players rankings at every position for the 2020 season, and while the analytics site is not the final word on player evaluation, it’s probably a good starting point to gauge which teams have the most blue-chippers (and which teams don’t have enough).

According to the PFF rankings, Las Vegas has five players considered to be Top-10 at their position, and four of them were acquired during the three-year stint with Gruden and Mayock in charge of personnel.

The only blue-chipper they inherited when they took over in 2018 was offensive lineman Rodney Hudson, who is ranked as the No. 3 center by PFF. He has posted the best pass-blocking grade at his position for the last five years straight, putting him among the elite of the elite.

Gruden and Mayock then signed tight end Darren Waller off the Baltimore Ravens practice squad, and he has developed into one of the league’s most productive pass-catching tight ends. Last year, Waller broke out with 90 receptions for 1,145 yards and three touchdowns. PFF rates him as the No. 4 tight end this season.

Before the 2019 season, Gruden convinced Richie Incognito to come out of retirement after a year away from the game and that move has paid off in a huge way. Incognito enjoyed a career year and is now PFF’s No. 10 guard heading into 2020.

Mayock added the Raiders’ other elite offensive talent in the first round of the 2019 draft, when he used one of the picks received in the Khalil Mack trade to select Alabama running back Josh Jacobs at No. 24 overall. He is now rated as the No. 8 running back in the league after gaining 1,150 yards on the ground as a rookie.

That’s not a bad collection of talent on the offensive side of the ball. The two missing elements are a playmaker on the outside, which the team tried to address by picking receiver Henry Ruggs at No. 11 overall in the 2020 draft, and quarterback, where veteran Derek Carr remains in good-not-great territory.

According to PFF, Carr is the No. 14 QB in the league and it’s his lack of aggression that is holding him back from the top tier. His depth of target over the last two years is just 7.0 yards, ranking him last in the league; the hope is that with more talent around him this season, Carr will create more big plays and elevate his status among the ranks of the elite.

The cupboard on the defensive side is not nearly as stocked with established, high-end talent. The only Top-10 player is linebacker Cory Littleton, who Gruden and Mayock targeted early in free agency; they eventually lured the former Ram with a 4-year, $36-million contract. Littleton’s pass-coverage ability is the main reason PFF ranks him No. 8 among linebackers.

And that’s it for the defense. No other Raiders are rated in the Top-10 at their position, which is partly due to the team’s youth movement on that side of the ball. The 2020 secondary will feature a pair of first-round picks in cornerback Damon Arnette and safety Johnathan Abram, and defensive end Maxx Crosby showed high upside by recording 10.0 sacks as a rookie last year.

If those players can progress into elite performers like their offensive counterparts, the Raiders will be on their way to fielding a playoff-caliber roster.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.