Getty Josh McDaniels & Dave Ziegler of the Las Vegas Raiders.
With the Las Vegas Raiders wrapping up organized team activities on June 15, the coaching staff has gotten its best look yet at the new roster. Cornerback was a concern heading into OTAs and it appears to still be a position they hope to address. The Athletic’s Vic Tafur and Tashan Reed reported on June 14 that the team was “likely” to sign free agent cornerback Marcus Peters.
Peters is a three-time Pro Bowler and most recently played for the Baltimore Ravens. He’s the biggest name cornerback left on the market. While The Athletic is reporting that a deal is likely, Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal threw some cold water on the idea in a June 16 mailbag. He does believe the Raiders are in the mix but nothing is imminent quite yet.
“Now that OTAs are over, the sense is the Raiders will take a long, hard look at whether to bring in Peters. That includes evaluating where he is at this point in his career. He’s now nearly two years removed from the knee injury he suffered that cost him the entire 2021 season,” Bonsignore wrote.
“Hard to classify this as a for-sure signing, but at the end of the day this feels like a logical fit. The educated guess is 60/40 the Raiders sign him.”
Marcus Peters Is a Las Vegas Raiders Fan at Heart
Peters was born and raised in Oakland, California, where the Raiders played from 1960 to 1981 then again from 1995 to 2019. The Raiders were the team he grew up watching, but he was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2015. The Raiders and Chiefs have a rivalry that dates back to the former team’s creation in 1960.
The two teams share a division and play each other twice a year. That was tough for Peters at first as he grew up a big fan of the Raiders.
“It’s going to be real special because I’m a Raiders fan at heart, but I’m a Chief now,” Peters said in a 2015 interview with The Mercury News when he was about to play his first NFL game in the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum during his rookie year.
In Peters’ first professional game in Oakland, he had six tackles and an interception en route to a 34-20 win. His love for the Raiders didn’t affect his play on the field. All these years later, he has the chance to play for the team he grew up loving.
Tyler Hall Named Among Best Slot Cornerbacks
Peters is an experienced cornerback who could provide a boost to the Raiders’ secondary, but there are some well-regarded players already part of the group. With cornerback Nate Hobbs asked to play more snaps on the outside last season, the team enlisted Tyler Hall to take many of the snaps at slot cornerback. Braxton Howard of Pro Football Focus was impressed with Hall last season and ranked him as the third-best slot corner in the NFL based on passer rating allowed in a June 16 column.
“Hall was an undrafted free agent in 2020 and hasn’t really found a steady place to call home since. However, that may have changed, as he had a silent breakout year in Las Vegas with an 86.9 PFF grade last season on 218 snaps. He didn’t appear in a game until Week 11, but his snap count picked up steam from that point forward,” Howard wrote.
“Hall performed phenomenally against San Francisco in Week 17, as he was targeted twice and broke up both passes. That led him to a career-high 90.4 coverage grade, which is elite. On the season, Hall allowed under 50 yards in coverage while breaking up four passes and not giving up a single touchdown. The Raiders may have found their new slot corner as Nate Hobbs transitions to the outside.”
