Raiders Opinion: Zone Defense Will Suffer At Offense's Hands -

While the zone defense is the bane of offenses, the Raiders manage to excel. How will Davante Adams improve that even more?

The more weapons an offense possesses, the more likely their opponent is to come out in a zone defense. A zone defense allows defenders to cover areas on the field instead of being assigned a specific pass-catcher. Due to the variety of locations each defender can cover, zone can be confusing to less-experienced quarterbacks.

Accounting For Everyone

If multiple high-threat targets increase a defense’s likelihood to shift to zone and it takes an experienced, level-headed quarterback to operate against zone looks, the Las Vegas Raiders are in an incredible spot to succeed. For as long as the Raiders’ WAR trio (Waller, Adams, Renfrow) is on the field together, there is an increased chance the defense will not want to risk leaving any of the three strictly in man coverage.

Stats To Believe In

According to playerprofiler.com’s breakdown of Derek Carr, the ninth-year quarterback logged the third-highest completion percentage (76.7%) against zone defense in 2021. If Adams’ floor with the Raiders is an attention-grabbing, zone-spacer, it would be shocking to see Carr’s numbers go anywhere but up. Carr’s completion percentage against man coverage (64%) landed him eighth last season, meaning he logged a bit over one additional completion per ten against zone.

Quiet Statistical Positivity

In addition to completion percentages, Carr also ranked third in clean pocket (not pressured, hurried, or knocked down while in the pocket) completion percentage, which he does an impeccable job of utilizing every chance he gets. However, with the Raiders’ offensive line question marks entering the 2022 season, there is no telling how often a “clean pocket” opportunity will arise.

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The Fly In The Ointment

A bonus to the Raiders’ opponents potentially limiting their man coverage sets against the team is that Carr’s tendency to struggle against two-man deep coverages (man coverage with two safeties dropping deep into zone) may not be as exploitable with the number of options he has at his disposal. In 2021, Carr rated as the worst quarterback against two-man deep sets. Plus, he recorded a passer rating of 55.4 against the coverage. Teams may still run it against him to take away a potential deep pass, but this will open shorter passing lanes for any of the Raiders’ offensive trio.

Spread The Wealth

With a three-headed monster of pass-catchers, the Raiders have to prioritize spreading the field. Adams can be used on deep routes. However, a streak or “go” route may not create the separation necessary alone. A post or a corner route can pull multiple defenders as it is run. As a result, that would leave an out route wide open (or leave Adams in single coverage deep downfield. Last season, the Raiders averaged twenty-two points per game, ranking them eighteenth out of thirty-two. On paper, this team is capable of raising that average to close to twenty-seven. That sits outside of the top five. Additionally, with Carr most likely playing predominately against his preferred coverage, twenty-seven points per game seems like a very attainable mean.