The Las Vegas Raiders have a roster full of players under pressure to perform. with Ashton Jeanty atop the list.
The Las Vegas Riaders have plenty of offensive player under pressure to perform. Almost no one playe well, so start with that. Add in the fact that they’re trying to impress a new coach and mostly-new staff, and the pressure goes up. Throw in the money spent in free agency and the pressure that comes with that, and the amount is sky high, even though it can’t be quantified.
The easy answer to the question of who’s under the most pressure is the quarterback, but it’s not that simple. That’s a cop-out answer, so let’s throw out Kirk Cousins and Fernando Mendoza and see who’s left and where they rank.
Ashton Jeanty, RB
Jeanty is an overdrafted, undersized running back right now, which is a bad place to be when it comes to pressure. He spent his season running into the arms and bodies of much larger men last year, unless you count the amount time the Raiders put him outside as a swing-pass receiver.
What makes this worse is that we have little evidence the Raiders running back can do what this team needs him to do. He struggled to have 100-yard games, even with his receiving yardage thrown in, and he’s at teh mercy of an offensive line that’s 40 percent rebuilt at the moment.
Tre Tucker, WR
Tucker is another holdover, so that automatically puts him under pressure. He was supposed to stretch the field and get big yards per catch, but instead he did the opposite of that, so there’s some more.
Add in the fact that the Raiders didn’t go out and get a number-one receiver, and Tucker gets some more pressure for being asked to do something he hasn’t shown the ability to do. He’ll also be part of an offense that will initially feature the tight ends, which means targets could be few and far between.
Maxx Crosby, DE
Crosby generated plenty of controversy last year, but the one thing we knew about him was that he could perform. Now that’s in question due to his medical situatoin and the fact that the trade the Raiders trade to make with him boomeranged.
Historically, the ability to perform is on Crosby’s side. If the Raiders keep him, though, he’ll be under pressure to lead a revamped defense that often leaked like a sieve last year. That's assuming he's still with the team, given the ongoing trade rumors that don't seem to be going away.
