What Are the Raiders Searching For in a Cornerback?

The Las Vegas Raiders' secondary is an area that needs to be addressed in this year's NFL Draft.

Should the Raiders choose to make an impact in that department -- particularly in the cornerback room -- with their first-round pick, they have some strong options.

Between Christian Gonzalez, Devon Witherspoon, and Joey Porter Jr., there's a lot of versatility to pick from amongst first-round talent.

Raiders General Manager Dave Ziegler discussed what his club had looked for while evaluating cornerback prospects when he addressed Friday's media.

"I think one of the biggest things is guys that can affect the capacity of making plays on the football," Ziegler said. "I think that's a trait that you want to see, and it doesn't always materialize in college stats. Because a lot of guys are asked to play a certain type of way and that's part of the difficulty in maybe evaluating the position. You may watch a guy that maybe doesn't have much ball production because they've asked him to play a bunch of cover three and he's playing seven, eight yards off the ball. But then when you look at his athletic traits, his short area quickness, his explosive burst, his speed, that's the level of projection that you have to make. But I think people that can make an impact on the ball is important.

"I think for us, we have a little bit more diversification in our coverages in terms of both playing zone and playing in some man scheme. So guys who can play man coverage, guys who you can see have a feel at the top of routes, to match routes, and stay in phase and those types of things. And also, I'd say press technique, which is something I think you can improve on. But just a player's ability to play with patience at the line of scrimmage, the ability to affect the route and disrupt the route from a man-to-man situation are a couple of the traits that we look for. And there's also the aspect I think that gets lost, that's tackling. You still have to be able to tackle. You get edge runs, the games become a little bit more horizontal, not as many vertical runs, straight down the middle of the formation. So guys that can show up and tackle, I think that's still an attractive trait for us, too."

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The 2023 NFL Draft will go from April 27-29 and be held at Union Station in Kansas City, Mo. The 2023 NFL Year and Free Agency period began at 4 p.m. EDT on March 15.

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