The Raiders lost Casey Hayward Jr. in free agency this offseason and that was a major blow to their defense. He was their best secondary player by far last season and gave them a top-tier cornerback on the outside.
Now that he’s gone, the Raiders are hoping that one of the several cornerbacks they added this offseason can step up and provide some quality play. That includes Rock Ya-Sin, who the team traded for earlier this offseason.
In a recent article by Pro Football Focus, they named every team’s most intriguing player after a few weeks of practice. For the Raiders, that was none other than Ya-Sin. Here is what general manager Dave Ziegler had to say about the former Temple cornerback:
“Ya-Sin was a guy who I did some work on in New England before the draft and went out to Temple and spent time with him there, I really got to know the person and the football player. We’ve watched him from afar, watched him develop, watched him grow and he’s still a young, ascending player.”
Ya-Sin turned 26 this offseason and does have a lot of snaps under his belt. During his time with Indianapolis, he started 29 games and played a combined 1,992 snaps on defense.
The Raiders are hopeful that a change in scenery will help the young cornerback as they need him to start and play well this season if they want to have any chance at stealing the division.