Raiders' Defensive Depth Problem Isn't Going Away

Devin White logged 174 tackles last season and was the closest thing this defense had to a veteran anchor. He's in Detroit now. Chris Collier, the pass rusher the Raiders were counting on to add some edge, went on Injured Reserve at the start of August. And Jermod McCoy — the cornerback who missed all of 2025 with a knee injury and got cleared in early July to begin camp recovery — is still listed as Questionable. Three names, three different kinds of gone, all at once.

As I noted earlier this week, Rob Leonard is building something culturally in that defensive room — player-led calls, accountability, ownership of the scheme. That part is real. The problem is that culture requires bodies, and right now the Raiders are leaning heavily on a secondary that includes undrafted free agents Cian Slone and Xavian Sorey competing for snaps. That's not an indictment of those players; it's just where the roster sits.

The front office is aware of it. They've been exploring secondary reinforcements, and the draft class was built with depth in mind. But training camp doesn't pause for roster math. Every day McCoy's status stays Questionable is another day the corners behind Eric Stokes are getting first-team reps they weren't supposed to need yet. The Raiders went 3–14 last year in part because they couldn't hold leads when it mattered. A thin, unsettled secondary is not the fix for that.