Raiders 2025: Amari Gainer has breakthrough opportunity in front of him

Second-year linebacker has size, athleticism to make noise and compete for starting snaps

An undrafted rookie who was a core special teamer and finished with a miniscule five total tackles in his rookie season having starting potential heading into Year 2?

Sounds ludicrous, doesn’t it?

Such is the case for Amari Gainer and the Las Vegas Raiders.

The 24-year-old North Carolina/Florida State product has good size at 6-foot-3 and 236 pounds and athleticism (4.53 40-yard dash time at the Tarheels’ pro day) and made the 53-man roster as an undrafted free agent last season. Gainer finished second in special teams snaps amongst all Raiders in 2024 with 380 — Amari Burney, who was waived earlier this offseason, led Las Vegas with 384 snaps.

By The Numbers:
Amari Gainer, Linebacker, Florida State/North Carolina

• 2024: 17 games (Zero starts), 5 total tackles (2 solo)
• College (2018-23): 59 total games, 237 total tackles (115 solo), 26 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, 4 pass breakups, 6 forced fumbles, 4 fumble recoveries

It’s Gainer’s size and athleticism that can make waves this offseason in a linebacker group that’s very much in flux. It’s a group of nine players that is a mix of veterans and very young players in their second season or rookies.

The pecking order is going to be figured out as the Raiders continue with offseason team activities (OTAs), practices, and workouts. Things will intensify when Las Vegas convenes for minicamp in June and then training camp later in the summer.

Gainer has appeared to work hard on his craft this offseason and if he can parlay that into consistent effort to open eyes from this Raiders coaching staff, he’s got breakthrough potential in Year 2.

The Raiders have a void in terms of both tackling and coverage ability at the linebacker position — one that lost both 2024 starter via free agency in Robert Spillane (New England Patriots) and Divine Deablo (Atlanta Falcons). Gainer, who has the instincts, intelligence, and speed, can make an impression on head coach Pete Carroll and linebackers coach John Glenn — both of whom have a solid reputation of developing defenders and linebackers.

A core special teamer-turned starting linebacker may seem daunting, but it’s not impossible.

That’s a career trajectory Corey Littleton took with the Los Angeles Rams. Sure, his two-year stint with the Raiders is considered a flop, but Littleton cut his teeth as a core special teamer for the first two years of his career before blossoming into an all-around linebacker from 2018-19 (259 total tackles (168 solo), 7.5 sacks, five interceptions, 22 pass breakups). The 6-foot-3, 225-pound Littleton was talented in coverage those two season and Gainer has similar size and athletic profile.

The Competition

Las Vegas has a trio of veterans who inked one-year deals that can be summed up simply as flier “let’s see what they can do for us” type pacts.

Veteran free agent addition Elandon Roberts is highly likely one of the starters at the position group. The 5-foot-11 and 235-pound 31-year-old started 14 games for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2024 (46 total tackles, five stops for loss, one sack) and started 15 in 2023 (101 total tackles, 10 stops for loss, 2.5 sacks).

As a 10-year veteran heading into his 11th season, Roberts has the veteran savvy and production to be a two-down thumper as a run stopper and has the potential to claim a staring spot.

Raiders general manager John Spytek dug into his bag of familiarity by inking another veteran flier in Devin White — who the Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected with the fifth-overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. Spytek was part of the Bucs player personnel group that picked White and the 27-year-old fits the Raider bill as a first-round reclamation project. But White hasn’t been a regular on defense since the 2022 season in Tampa (124 total tackles, eight stops for loss, 5.5 sacks, five pass breakups).

There’s also Jaylon Smith, the 34th overall pick in the 2016 draft by the Dallas Cowboys. The 29-year-old was a do-it-all type linebacker like White when he arrived to the league but the injury bug decimated the Notre Dame product’s availability and production. The last time Smith was a contributing linebacker was in 2022 with the New York Giants (88 total tackles, three stops for loss, one sack).

Two or Three?

What will the Raiders most-used defensive alignment be with Carroll in tow?

Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham returns to run Las Vegas defense — a job he’s held since 2022 — and during his tenure, the team’s base alignment has been the 4-2-5 nickel. That meant the team rarely deployed three linebackers on the field and it was Spillane and Deablo as the combo.

Carroll, however, has a history of using a 4-3 base alignment that has 3-4 elements cooked in — like a LEO linebacker who is more defensive end/edge rusher. We’ll find out over the course of the offseason what Graham’s defense will look like in 2025. Fortunately for the defensive play caller, he has experience deploying a variety of alignments — including 4-3 and 3-4.

Deviation from the nickel alignment can create opportunities for a third linebacker to enter the fracas and earn starting snaps.

And if that’s the case, it opens the door even more for Gainer or another eager linebacker — such as Tommy Eichenberg, taken with the 148th pick in the 2024 draft, or Cody Lindenberg, taken with the 222nd pick in the 2025 draft.