Oakland Raiders: Defense Will Improve Under Jack Del Rio

By Jonathan George | Feb 18, 2015

Now that Jack Del Rio has taken the reigns for the Oakland Raiders, one of the biggest issues he will need to fix is the defense.

He is inheriting a team that has been historically bad on the defensive side of the ball. The Raiders have not ended the season with a Top 10 defense in terms of points given up in the NFL since 2002. The last four years have been some of the worst, with the team faring no better than 28th overall in that statistic.

With the offenses that the Raiders will face in their own division, let alone the rest of the league, they will need to improve dramatically to have a chance at flipping their win-loss record. The Broncos were second in the NFL in scoring in 2014, while both the Chiefs and Chargers hovered near the top half of the league in the same category. On top of that, 2015 looks to be tough outside of the division as well; they will play some offensive powerhouses both on the road and at home in Green Bay, Detroit and Pittsburgh.

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If Raiders fans look at history, they will see a ray of hope in terms of Del Rio’s success in turning defenses around fairly quickly as a head coach. When he took over for the Jacksonville Jaguars, he turned a bottom half of the league defense into a top-tier one by year two. As a matter of fact, four of the first five years of Del Rio’s tenure as the Jaguars head coach resulted in Jacksonville ending the season as a Top 10 defense.

Del Rio’s passion on defense is infectious, and his players love playing for him. When describing Del Rio’s defensive coaching prowess, Broncos defensive tackle Terrance Knighton was recently quoted by ESPN’s Jeff Legwold : “he’s a genius … he knows what’s coming so we know what’s coming.”

Want some more good news Raiders fans? In arguably the Jaguars most successful defensive seasons under Del Rio (2005-2007), the team never had a negative giveaway-takeaway differential, a big reason why they had such success in the win-loss column. They were also in the top half of the league in all of those years when it came to sack totals, with two of those years showing them finishing in the top ten in the league.

The Raiders as of late have not seen much success when it comes to turnovers or sacks. The best they have done in the last three years is 19th overall in total sacks, and 23rd overall in giveaway-takeaway margin. The last time they had a positive giveaway-takeaway differential was 2008.

Broncos defensive tackle Terrance Knighton was recently quoted by ESPN’s Jeff Legwold describing Del Rio’s defensive coaching prowess: “he’s a genius … he knows what’s coming so we know what’s coming.”

Oct 5, 2014; Denver, CO, USA; Former Denver Broncos defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio is now the head coach of the Oakland Raiders. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

Another advantage of bringing in Del Rio might be his extensive knowledge of Peyton Manning, as well as the rest of the AFC West. Del Rio faced Manning just about every year he was in Jacksonville as the head coach, and has been on the same sideline as Manning during the last three seasons. If anyone has a chance at slowing down Manning in 2015 it is Del Rio. He has also had a lot of experience scouting Philip Rivers and Alex Smith during that time.

As Del Rio begins to piece together his team, his focus needs to be one the defensive side of the ball. The Raiders stand very little chance of winning if they continue their defensive ineptitude. With the history Del Rio brings with him, it is expected that the Raiders will be much better on defense.

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