Guenther finally has talent to give Raiders defense a chance

In the spirit of street racing, Paul Guenther the last few NFL seasons has directed a Toyota Corolla down an open stretch of pavement. Never has owned much of a chance.

It’s natural to think eyes will shade toward offense when the Raiders walk onto their pristine practice facility in Henderson to commence training camp. Rookie wide receiver Henry Ruggs will be exhilarating to watch. Humans who fly usually are.

Yet the focus should be elsewhere. Like, well, on a defense that might finally stand a chance.

Look. The Raiders are 11-21 since Jon Gruden returned as head coach for a list of reasons that stretch from one end of Allegiant Stadium to the other and back again. Nobody is immune to serious evaluation. Management. Coaches. Players.

Give me a few minutes and I’ll find things Gorilla Rilla could have done better to help the Raiders win.

But in the case of defensive coordinator Guenther, perhaps more than anyone, assessment should include far more layers than a few numbers by which many define a defense’s worth. After all, how can you trust the numbers when they have been created by such inferior talent.

Pay the D

It’s not difficult to grasp. Under Gruden, the Raiders until this last offseason didn’t spend much free agent money at all on defense. When the wallet opened, names like Trent Brown and Tyrell Williams and Antonio Brown were first in line to be paid.

In turn, the team pretty much handed Guenther’s side of the ball a lot of minimum salary veterans the first season and a lot of rookies last year.

We’re talking some really, really below average players in spots.

They also allowed a handful of good NFL defensive players to walk while trying to discover the money to keep star linebacker Khalil Mack, but still eventually traded him.

All of it has translated to the Raiders being on the wrong side of defensive analytics and results created by them. But in four seasons as defensive coordinator for the Bengals, Guenther produced sides that ranked 12, 2, 8 and 16 in scoring defense; and 22, 11, 12 and 18 in overall defense.

Translation: It’s not as if Guenther stepped off the BART in Oakland and forgot how to coach.

“Basically, we tore this thing down to the studs because we had nothing,” Guenther said. “But this offseason, we really went after it in free agency, which can be a crapshoot at times. You hope you find the right guys to fit your system. You want to build through the draft — get those silver and black seeds to build on — and roll the dice on some free agents.”

Carl Nassib. Maliek Collins. Cory Littleton. Nick Kwiatkoski. Prince Amukamara. Damarious Randall. Jeff Heath. The Raiders rolled and rolled. They paid and paid.

Zoom onto field

Maybe now they can blitz more than 17.5 percent of the time per drop back, which was 31st in the 32-team NFL. Maybe their sack total will be higher than the 32 of last season, which was 24th. Maybe when staring down at his play-call sheet, Guenther won’t instantly think a certain guy can’t cover someone one-on-one. Maybe they will allow a lot fewer than 26 points a game.

Guenther is antsy like all coaches to move from zoom chats into actual on-field instruction, to be granted a momentary pause from COVID-19 restrictions and begin teaching all new and returning faces.

There are layers to his time with the Raiders, more to consider than just a few numbers when grading performance.

“Being part of the Raiders is exciting to me,” Guenther said. “Being in Las Vegas is exiting to me. We’ve added some good players. We’ll have a lot more erasers out on the field now. The numbers are pretty clear. If you finish in the Top 10 of scoring defense, you’re going to make the playoffs. That’s the goal.

“There isn’t an NFL coach out there who doesn’t feel pressure. But my job is to help the Raiders win and make sure the other guys aren’t scoring points. That’s the only thing I think about.”

I’d be excited too if my boss finally gave me a ride with some horsepower, because a Toyota Corolla isn’t getting this thing done.

Ed Graney is a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing and can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.