The defense of the Las Vegas Raiders was crucial to their turnaround when Josh McDaniels was replaced as coach by Antonio Pierce eight games into the season. The defense had allowed 20 touchdowns and had 16 sacks in eight games under McDaniels; under Pierce, that number fell to 16 touchdowns in nine games and 30 sacks. A major concern was more support for top pass-rusher Maxx Crosby, who under Pierce saw third-year edge Malcolm Koonce explode for eight sacks.
But the Raiders could use even more help with their pass rush, especially when it comes to giving Crosby the occasional break. That’s the view from Pro Football Focus, which ranked the Raiders’ pass rush just No. 17 in the NFL this season. The solution, PFF suggests, is for the Raiders to land Josh Uche from the Patriots, whom PFF tabbed as “the one free agent” the Raiders “should pursue.
From the site’s evaluation: “The Raiders ask a lot of Maxx Crosby in terms of workload, and while they added Tyree Wilson with the seventh pick of the 2023 NFL Draft, acquiring another productive pass rusher this offseason would help. Uche earned an 87.8 PFF pass-rushing grade and racked up 56 pressures from 285 pass-rushing snaps in 2022. The Raiders could bring him in as a pass-rushing specialist to give Crosby a breather.”
Josh Uche Had a Breakout Year in 2022
Uche was the Patriots’ second-round pick out of Michigan in 2020. There is no question he has a talent for getting to the quarterback, and logged 11.5 sacks in 2022, though he had only 3.5 sacks this season. The question with Uche, and the reason teams will be hesitant to pay him this offseason, is how much he can play. He is 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds, relatively light for an every-down defensive end and while PFF points out that he had a sterling grade in passing downs two years ago, he struggled this year.
His overall grade of 57.1 was 140th in the NFL. As a pass rusher, for 227 snaps, he had a decent grade of 66.8. But on running downs, he had a grade of 61.5 in just 66 snaps. He had to handle coverage on 38 snaps, and was among the worst in the NFL, with a 28.8 grade.
Still, pass-rusher is a premium position in the NFL, and even if Uche is a part-time player, he still figures to get paid. Spotrac projects him to get $14.5 million per year this offseason, on a four-year, $58 million contract. That might be high for a guy with a limited snap count, but there are 15 edge rushers slated to make $20 million in 2024, and another five or six on the market who are likely to cross that threshold. Pass rushers get paid.
According to OverTheCap.com, the Raiders will have roughly $34 million in effective cap room despite having a lot of holes to address in the upcoming months. By making decisions like benching seasoned quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, they might free up more room.
Added Value for Raiders Maxx Crosby
Regarding Uche, he stated that there were explanations for his drop in sack totals this year. One was the loss of Matthew Judon, a Pro Bowl linebacker who was limited to just four games before missing the entire season due to a biceps injury. In the first four games with Judon, Uche had three quarterback hits; the remainder of the season, he only had three more. Uche is an additive
player, and he might be able to support Crosby and Koonce of the Raiders.
Additionally, he concentrated more on keeping the quarterback contained in the pocket in addition to merely getting to him. Obtaining a sack occasionally requires you to take a gamble on making the tackle; even if you fail, the quarterback can still make a huge play.
In terms of stress, sacks, and all that, I believe that what I portray on screen matters the most. It matters more what coaches and other players see, what people see in real life, than what happens in the end. It’s not always the case, the sacks, that everything has to line up precisely at the right moment. You have no choice but to press on. Just want to make good movies,” Uche said in a December interview with Patriots.com.
