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Mike Mayock’s stint as the Las Vegas Raiders general manager has been widely panned as he made a number of questionable draft picks and free agent signings. New general manager Dave Ziegler appears to also be off to a rough start. It’s difficult to know his drafting ability yet as the team traded away their first and second-round picks to land Davante Adams but his free agent signings are not looking great.
The most expensive player the Raiders signed in free agency was Chandler Jones. The team gave him a $51 million contract in the hopes that he would form a ferocious pass rushing duo with Maxx Crosby. That hasn’t been the case whatsoever. The Raiders are last in the NFL with nine sacks in eight games. Crosby has 6.0 of them while Jones has 0.5. He’s been a non-factor for the team this season despite being third in the NFL in active sacks for a career. If the Raiders have any hope of turning the season around, they need Jones to start making an impact. Brad Spielberger of Pro Football Focus ripped the four-time Pro Bowler for his season so far but believes he’s an x-factor for Las Vegas.
“Edge defender Chandler Jones,” Spielberger wrote of the Raiders’ x-factor for the second half of the season. “The obvious answer here is Darren Waller getting his hamstring right, but Jones is looking like one of the worst value free agent deals of the offseason. He has a 58.8 pass-rush grade and a 7.4% pressure percentage, which ranks 79th out of 91 qualifying edge defenders.”
Raiders Stuck With Jones for at Least 1 More Season
The Raiders have no choice but to hope that Jones can turn things around. $32 million of his $51 million contract was guaranteed at signing. They do have an out after next season and would only take a $7.2 dead cap hit if he’s cut after the 2023 season. There’s no way the Raiders were thinking they were going to have to take advantage of that when they signed him.
Jones had 10.5 sacks last season so his decline has come somewhat out of nowhere. His stats were inflated last year as 5.0 of his 10.5 sacks came in one game. However, even getting 5.5 sacks out of Jones would be a major improvement over what he’s brought the team this season. If he finished this season with less than 5.0 sacks, the Raiders may need to explore options to get rid of him this offseason.
Should Raiders Give Jones’ Snaps to Younger Players?
The Raiders aren’t mathematically out of the playoff race yet but they’d have to play perfect football the rest of the way to have a chance. That’s highly unlikely considering how they’ve played this season. If the team continues its losing ways, it may be time to take away a large chunk of snaps from Jones and start giving them to Clelin Ferrell and Malcolm Koonce.
Ferrell has as many sacks as Jones this season and a better PFF grade (62.5). He’s in a contract year so perhaps the Raiders should see what they have in him in case they want to bring him back. Koonce has shown flashes of being an effective pass rusher but he’s only played more than 10 defensive snaps once this season. It’s time for the Raiders to get a longer look at him.
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