Oakland Raiders: 3 Players flying under the radar in 2018
By Randy Gurzi
3. Tank Carradine, DE
Once a highly thought of prospect out of Florida State, Cornelius ‘Tank’ Carradine, never materialized into the player he was supposed to be.
Carradine has been playing across the Bay for the San Francisco 49ers the past four seasons after they took him in the second-round of the NFL Draft. At FSU, he was a nightmare for offensive linemen.
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For San Francisco, that hasn’t been the case. Carradine instead has been just a rotational player, with eight starts to his name. Seven of those came this past season, but ended with him on the IR thanks to an ankle injury.
This offseason, the raiders brought him in and it was a quiet move. That doesn’t mean it won’t be an effective one.
Carradine was used out of position a lot on a San Francisco 3-4 defensive line. In Oakland, he can return to a four-man line like he had in college. The results should prove how wise a pick up he really was by the Raiders.
Even playing in a position he wasn’t comfortable with, Carradine was never bad and was graded at 78.1 for the eight games he played in 2017 by Pro Football Focus. His addition makes this unit much stronger for Oakland, which is something they needed.