The silver (and black) lining: Raiders’ pass rush finally formidable

By Case Keefer (contact)

Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023 | 2 a.m.

Malcolm Koonce walked up to his neighboring locker Sunday afternoon at Allegiant Stadium right as a reporter asked fellow edge rusher Tyree Wilson about playing alongside him.

Koonce grinned and began winding his free hand — the other was holding his towel as he had just showered — as if to say, "let’s hear it."

“He’s a baller,” Wilson said of Koonce. “He was getting some pressure on the quarterback, making some key plays. We feed off each other’s energy, so we’re going to continue to keep going as a defense.”

Koonce curled his lips and nodded.

Raiders’ edge rushers, other than Maxx Crosby, have waited a long time to hear their praises sung. It may have felt like an awkward time to finally receive it coming off an overall dreadful 3-0 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, but it was well-deserved.

If there’s any reason for enthusiasm regarding the Raiders (5-8) as they head into a Thursday Night Football matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers (5-8) at Allegiant, it centers on their pass rush.

Against the Vikings and their typically stout offensive line, Crosby, Koonce and Wilson alone combined for 14 pressures per Pro Football Focus. It was almost surely the most disruptive collective performance out of a Raiders’ pass-rushing unit since the 2021 season, which is widely seen as the last time Crosby had a capable complement in now long-gone Yannick Ngakoue.

“We met as a defense, came in and just wanted to go win the football game, win the next five games,” Wilson said after the Vikings’ loss. “Whatever it took to get the W is what we did.”

A victory wasn’t the end result, but no one could possibly blame that on Wilson. The first-round rookie draft pick publicly showed some of the improvement and potential that the coaching staff had recently sworn he was developing.

Wilson had a sack, a tackle for loss and a career-high four pressures for the second-best game of his career according to PFF. He was no longer in a straight timeshare with the starter Koonce and instead also rotated in and spent some time at defensive tackle.

The 37 snaps Wilson played were his second-most of the season, only one fewer than he logged in a franchise-shifting Week 8 loss to the Detroit Lions.

“He’s coming along,” Raiders interim coach Antonio Pierce said before the game. “You’ve seen it the last couple weeks — that length, that size, the get-off, everything is happening a little bit faster for him. It’s odd; he’s going the opposite (while) most rookies hit the rookie wall (late in the season). He’s gotten better the last couple of weeks and we hope that improves with him.”

Wilson’s improvement could be big for the Raiders long-term.

They used the No. 7 overall pick on the Texas Tech product with visions of him forming a tough-to-block tandem with Crosby for years to come. The obvious hope was that, with a core of Crosby and Wilson, the Raiders wouldn’t have to address the premium defensive position for several seasons.

That was cast into serious doubt for most of the year with Crosby, for the third time in four seasons since the franchise moved to Las Vegas, looking like the team’s only above-average player on the edge.

But it’s suddenly starting to change, and not only because of Wilson.

Koonce, a third-round pick out of Buffalo in 2021, has also emerged. Some may have suggested he wasn’t even a lock to make the roster coming into the season, but now he’s made a case that he’s worthy of a contract extension heading into the final year of his rookie deal.

Koonce’s two-sack total on the season fails to illustrate his importance to the defense. He’s created havoc much more consistently and might be in the best stretch of his career.

Koonce has four pressures or more in five straight games. In three of the last four games, he’s rated in PFF’s top 30 edge rushers for the week.

That’s vaulted him to No. 37 in the league on the year, plenty high enough to be a worthy second option next to Crosby.

“We’re all super close,” Crosby said after the loss to the Vikings. “We have a tight-knit locker room. That's something that's been special this year, regardless what's been going on. There's no finger pointing. There's none of that. We just got to find ways to get better and find ways to get more points on the board on offense. And on defense, find ways to get even more stops.”

No one on the defense is expressing any satisfaction despite coming off a performance that put its growth in focus. The Raiders finished with five sacks against the Vikings for a loss of 47 yards, and were close to a handful more.

They’ve moved up to 17^th in the league by adjusted sack rate, which adjusts for down, distance and opponent. That’s still below average but it’s a sizable leap from last year when the Raiders spent most of the season dead-last and only a late surge had them narrowly finish at No. 30 out 32 teams.

The Raiders’ pass rush is leading the team right now. The only thing that could make it better is if it were leading the team to wins.

"At the end of the day, we’ve got to be better,” Wilson said. “It can come down to us. We need turnovers. If the offense is struggling one day, we need the turnovers to put the game in our hands so we can come out with a W."

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or