Raiders Training Camp Preview: Interior Defensive Line

The Las Vegas Raiders will have a great deal of competition on the interior defensive line during this year’s training camp.

Stopping the run and generating pressure in the interior was an issue last season, and is why Raiders General Manager Dave Ziegler made it a focus to overhaul the position during the offseason.

But as the Raiders opened their first practice of training camp on Thursday, they were without three of its projected starters.

Potential Starters

On Thursday, the Raiders placed defensive tackles Johnathan Hankins (knee/back) and Bilal Nichols (knee) on the physically unable to perform list.

Hankins, who enters his 10th season in the NFL, resigned with the Raiders this offseason. He’s reunited with defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, who had one of the best seasons of his career in 2016 with Graham as his defensive line coach of the New York Giants.

Hankins was dealing with back and knee injuries towards the end of the season. He missed Weeks 16 and 17 and was limited in snaps on Week 18 and the Wild-Card playoff game.

Nichols signed with the Raiders this offseason after appearing in 60 games (49 starts) with the Chicago Bears the past four seasons.

The defensive tackle had a mutual connection with Assistant General Manager Champ Kelly while in Chicago.

The last potential starter to miss the start of training camp was Vernon Butler. While Butler is not injured, he was placed on the non-football injury list.

He started only one game, played in 10, after dealing with injuries with the Buffalo Bills.

Butler was signed to compete for a rotational spot in the roster.

Returner

Kendal Vickers is the other lone returner from a year ago.

Signed in 2020, Vickers has been swinging between the practice squad and the active roster for the last two years, and may potentially continue to do so in 2022.

Offseason Acquisitions

“Hopefully, at some point here, they'll be back,” McDaniels said. “But I feel good about the guys we've added. We have a great deal of competition that's about to play out here in the next six weeks at a lot of spots on our roster, and that's a healthy thing.”

Kyle Peko, joins the Silver and Black after stops with the Tennessee Titans (2021), Denver Broncos (2016-21), Indianapolis Colts (2019) and Buffalo Bills (2018-19).

Tyler Lancaster, who had Graham and Raiders pass game specialist Jason Simmons as his coaches during his rookie season in Green Bay will be looking to have a fresh start in Las Vegas.

Andrew Billings, joins the Raiders after spending the last two years with the Cleveland Browns.

The Browns were expecting to have the productive ex-Cincinnati Bengal, instead he would sit out in 2020 due to COVID-19 concerns, and when he showed up in 2021, it was clear that he was not the same player that he was in Cincinnati.

He’s earned another chance to change that narrative and return back to the player he was before arriving in Cleveland.

“I think we have a lot of spots on our team where that's definitely the case. And we're going to give everybody opportunities and whatever they do with those opportunities that will dictate how we end up making decisions ultimately,” added McDaniels.

Draftees

The Raiders drafted two defensive tackles during the 2022 NFL Draft, fourth-round pick Neil Farrell Jr. and fifth-round selection Matthew Butler.

While both players are projected to make the roster, that shouldn’t be an excuse to cruise by training camp.

The Raiders are down three players, so this will be the time for them to take advantage of the opportunity to get ready for the preseason and the start of the regular season.

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