If the Raiders want to be a playoff team again in 2022, they are going to need their defense to be even better. For that to happen, they will need several young players to greatly improve.
One player that is poised to break out in 2022 is linebacker Divine Deablo. After making the transition from safety to linebacker, the former Virginia Tech star was able to crack the starting lineup at the end of the season.
In a recent article by Maurice Moton of Bleacher Report, he named Deablo as one of the biggest sleepers and “best-kept secrets” in the league. Here is a snippet of what Moton had to say about Deablo:
“Divine Deablo moved into the starting lineup in place of linebacker Cory Littleton, whom the Las Vegas Raiders signed to a three-year, $35.3 million deal in 2020.
Littleton had an underwhelming two-year run with the Raiders, and Deablo capitalized on an opportunity to fill a void in the middle of the defense. As a rookie, the latter started in five out of 17 games, logging 45 tackles, one for loss and a pass breakup.
Though Deablo didn’t make a ton of splashy plays, he did enough to hold on to the first-unit position late in the 2021 season and into the wild-card playoff game against the Cincinnati Bengals.”
If Deablo can grab ahold of one of the starting linebacker jobs and perform as well as he did in spurts last season, the defense for the Raiders could be in good shape. He is a phenomenal athlete and plays with the type of attitude the Raiders have desperately lacked for a few years now.
Going into the 2022 season, Deablo is one of the more important players on defense for the Raiders. If he is successful, expect the entire defense for the Raiders to make a leap this season.