The Raiders 49ers Film Shows Standout Rookie Performances And A HUGE Cousins Mistake

The trade deadline looms. And not to start this Raider video out with some breaking Jaguars news, but we all saw the moves that the Jaguars are making. And I do think there's a world where the Jordan Davis trade and all the other trades and players that they are acquiring impact us in some way. Because as they take on more players, they got to get rid of more players. And as they get rid of draft picks, they might want to flip a player or two. To get a draft pick or two. You see where I'm going here. Brian Thomas has been circling the Raiders trade sphere for a long time now. And while I do think it is a popular rumor out there, you have to ask yourself, and I'm not trying to be like Rage Beatty by saying this, do the Raiders even need him? A disappointing loss for the Raiders, no two ways around it. They could have easily scored 14 to 21 more points in that 49er game, and now the Raiders stay in the NFC West to take on the defending Super Bowl champions, who are reeling. People talk about the Super Bowl hangover for the loser of the Super Bowl. How about the winner of the Super Bowl? Because right now... The Seahawks are without Sam Darnold and Drew Locke, I believe, is going to play in this game against us, but he is suffering from somewhat of an oblique injury, so only time will tell if he's his full self. Now, the market for this game on Kalshi has... The Seahawks had a 62% chance to win the game if you purchased the yes contract for the Seattle Seahawks to win the game. As you guys know, I look at things from the Raider perspective, and I got to be honest with you. I know the Seahawks defense is awesome, but I'm pretty confident in our ability to score on any team in the league. Our defense has been horrible, but we catch a little bit of a break here. The Seahawks still don't have a completely healthy running back game yet, and Drew Locke, again, is suffering from that oblique injury. So if you throw $25 on this yes contract, it's a payout of $63.05. Now, if you are interested in checking out Kalshi, you can use code ALLABOARD to instantly get $25 when you trade $25. What makes Kalshi so unique and different from your typical sports book is that when you're using your typical sports book, you're betting against the house. With Kalshi, you are not betting against anything. You are not betting at all. You are purchasing yes or no contracts. It's peer-to-peer trading based off of specific yes or no outcomes that you can think of in all sorts of topics from movies to television to politics to media to sports. You name it. So, yes, I posed the question to you in the comments, to everybody watching around the globe. Do the Raiders need to add anybody on offense? Because, you know, I understand we only scored 17 points, and I already told you, everybody who didn't watch the game that's on a national news outlet are just brushing this game as, like, okay, well, the Raiders got dominated, it is what it is next. We left 14 to 21 points on the board. I was saying that we were 13 yards away from... Scoring 21 points and my take has only grown or I should say my confidence in this take has only grown which is I truly believe we can score on anybody and this is without a competent run game and without a true number one wide receiver. The film is still out there and every game that goes by continues to prove that Trey Tucker is wide open on a lot of these plays and Kirk Cousins isn't really finding him. I know we've been kind of saying at this point, because we don't think we're going to be able to compete for a playoff spot or a Super Bowl at this point, throw in Mendoza, let's see what he can do, stretch the ball down the field, and I am a proponent of that, but I understand not wanting to throw him in there right away against the Seattle Seahawks, one of the best defenses in the league. But also, on the other hand, the Seahawks themselves are struggling, especially offensively. Now, with Sam Darnold out again, Drew Lock is going to play, I believe, but he is injured as well. There's a lot to talk about and discuss here coming into this game. I don't expect them to announce Fernando Mendoza starting unless Kirk Cousins is traded by, what is it, 3 p.m. Eastern tomorrow, which is the trade deadline, is tomorrow. I don't expect the Raiders to make any moves, but it's not completely off the board. What got lost in a lot of yesterday's action. Was that there were some very, very positive signs from some rookies yesterday. Trey Zuin in back-to-back games was pretty good. And Jermod McGloey got extended time as well. So here on Raiders Beat, Warren Mitchell talks a little bit about the three rookies on Sunday who were very, very good for the Las Vegas Raiders. There wasn't a lot of good to feel about after the Raiders lost the 49ers on Sunday, but buried in the disappointment of the 38-17 defeat were a few strong efforts from rookies. From the moment the Raiders drafted Fernando Mendoza with the first pick overall, the 2026 season has always been about the future. And the future looks a little brighter today thanks to three notable performances from rookies on Sunday. Fans are already familiar with their names and it finally feels like some of the year's most intriguing rookies are taking a step forward in their respective careers. Jermod McCoy has his best game on Sunday. It has taken him some time to get comfortable. I mean, he only took like, what, 400 days off from football. But if Sunday's game was any indication, Jermod McCoy is going to get more playing time in the weeks ahead. McCoy was targeted in coverage twice by the 49ers and gave up no receptions. On both plays, McCoy was credited with a forced incompletion by Pro Football Focus. Like previous weeks, McCoy wasn't on the field a lot in Week 9. But for his 11 plays in coverage, Pro Football Focus gave him a 91.4 coverage grade. And that was by far his best mark of the season. In fact, McCoy's 91.4 coverage rate against the Niners was the highest coverage rate given by Pro Football Focus to a Raider defender all season. Obviously limited snaps for Jermon McCoy, but they always said they had a plan in place with him. And it was to gradually let him get used to the temperature of the water in the NFL. And I think next week, you're going to see all hands on deck to try to stop JSN. It's going to be baptism by fire for a lot of people on this Raiders defense. And Jermon McCoy seems like he's... He's taking a step. Trayvon Stukes. Oh, I love this guy so much. Every time Denzel Boston makes a play, I wince a little bit because I'm like, we could have had him, but Trayvon Stukes is playing phenomenally. Stukes played all 73 snaps on Sunday and received the highest PFF grade, 84.4 of any Raider defender for the game. Stukes picked up his second interception of the season and his coverage grade, 85.5 against the 49ers, was barely behind McCoy. Trayvon Stukes is a definite bright spot. We've been talking about him and looking at his film, and yeah, He had some ups and down games, but this was another good game for him. The Athletic's 10 Wins says in the Just Win podcast. He had that interception. I thought he did a great job of having zone awareness, almost baiting Purdy into that interception. And then my point is it wasn't an interception where the quarterback just threw some bad ball into the middle of three defenders and have it picked off. It was a well-processed interception that he deserved. Trayvon Stukes has been an absolute bright spot all year. And I know... We all want to take Robbie Leonard's head off, and I'm probably in line on that as well, but there is no doubt about it. He has been able to get some production out of a lot of the rookies in this class, which is, you know, we got to take the good with the bad. There's mostly bad, but there is some good there. And then Trey Zun has been very good at right guard. Raiders O-line got a boost from Trey Zun on Sunday. He left the game early due to a possible concussion, but Trey Zun had a very good game against the 49ers, which was the team's highest graded overall lineman by a wide margin. Zune's overall grade of 82.4 was well ahead of the Raiders' next closest lineman, Tyler Linderbaum, who earned a 68.3. Maybe even more encouraging than his overall grade, Zune earned a run-block grade from Pro Football Focus of 79.8. Considering how poorly the Raiders have blocked the run this year, it's big news that a rookie would have a solid performance against one of the best run defenses in the league. Unfortunately for Zune, he will most likely be out next week, as the NFL's concussion protocol makes it nearly impossible to return in one week from it. Just a credit to, you know, SpyTech of finding some guys in this draft. I do think this draft is going to go down in Raiders history, especially if Fernando Mendoza is who we think he is. I mean, in this draft alone, you've got five picks. Picks, I mean, interceptions. DeMasses has three. Stukes has two. You've got, it seems like, your future guard, you know, at some spot. He can play at every spot on the line, and Trey Zun You've got your future safety and trade in Stukes. And if Fernando Mendoza is, again, I keep saying 80% of what we think he could be with Clint Kubiak's offense, the sky could be the limit for this draft class in particular. So I know it was all doom and gloom yesterday, but those three players in particular deserve to be shouted out. Now, what I teased earlier is the Raiders deadline. And I do want to discuss that. But I feel like I haven't done a good enough job of explaining to people. And if you want to skip this, skip it. I don't care. People are like, why are there ads? Skip it. Okay? This is not an ad, but this is about the channel. If you become a YouTube member or sign up for the Patreon, the Patreon is a little bit cheaper than YouTube members because YouTube takes out a little bit more, but it's about personal preference for everyone to sign up for. You do not only get your name at the end of the credits to become a producer of this show, but you get ad-free content, videos in advance of when I upload them, exclusive content, channel updates, all that good stuff. You get a bunch of cool benefits for signing up for that. So a lot of people ask me, like, you don't live stream. I can't donate this way. If you want to chip in $5 or $8 or $10, whatever your tier is, on one of those things, link is in the description below to do that. Okay, Bleach Report has a buyers or sellers article. We're just going to go right to the Raiders here, or buying or selling about different rumors, speculation, blah, blah, blah. Raiders could trade Cousins for a third round pick. I'll be honest with you right now before we get into all this. I would be surprised... If we trade Kirk Cousins at this point, I do think they still want him there even when Mendoza takes over. Um... And a little bit beyond that. Maybe they keep him on to be a backup, or maybe they keep Aiden to be the backup, but I don't expect Fernando Mendoza to start this week against the Seahawks for his first game. I don't expect Fernando Mendoza to start against the Broncos in Denver. I believe it is in Denver. I'm not positive for his first game. If we lose these next two games, I do believe sitting at four and seven, we will start Fernando Mendoza post-bye and give him the last, is it six games? Yeah, that would be six games. Let me see if I can figure this out in no particular order. It is the Chargers again, it's the Titans, it's the Cardinals, it's the Broncos again, it's the Chiefs, and it's the Browns. I think that would be a very good sample size for Fernando Mendoza, give him six games. We'll hop into what Bleacher Report says here. Here. Okay, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. With those teams on the schedule, the Raiders still have a pathway to the postseason, so don't expect them to trade away key players before the deadline. However, NFL insider Charles Robinson presented a counterargument with the strong offer for Cousins. I think Cousins could be had for a price, regardless of a win or loss against the Niners on Sunday. The price, I think a third-round pick would be too tempting to pass up for the Las Vegas Raiders. I would take a second, not a third. Yes, it's rich, but the Raiders have been Placing a lot of value on Cousins' bridge role as the number one overall pick for Fernando Mendoza patiently grows as an understudy. Though, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter, the Raiders haven't received inquiries for Cousins and don't want to trade him. Interesting. Even with the rookie quarterback waiting to take over the offense, the Raiders know they have plenty of time to develop him. They're still trying to win now. Yeah, okay. But Brian Thomas is, I think, on the board here. And what's interesting is, like I said before, the Jaguars got to get rid of some players here. I'm sure they're making corresponding moves at some point. If a Jags fan has happened to stumble upon this video, tell me what you think is going to happen. Here's what I'll say about this. Do we need him? I mean, we're scoring at a very high clip, and we would have easily broken 25 to 28 points in this game if not for the peanut punch. Brock had a play at the one-yard line. Michael Mayer was at the one-yard line. I mean, it was just like a devastating cavalcade of misfortune. It was a series of unfortunate events. It was Lemony Snicket all over Levi's Stadium for the Las Vegas Raiders. We got to get the run game going, and I thought Gentry looked good in his limited carries, but they just completely abandoned it because he got down so much that he had to continue to pass the ball. The screen game is not working. I do not like the screen game one bit, but we're moving the ball at will. And I trust John Spagnuolo's ability to draft a skill position player that's able to make an impact, whether that is in the first round or the second round. Whether it's Cam Coleman or Charlie Becker, we're not going to be high enough to get Jeremiah Smith. Does Justin Jefferson become available if this season falls apart for the Vikings? Only time will tell. George Pickens can be had. Who knows? If we traded a third for Brian Thomas Jr. or even a second, I could be on board and get excited for it. Clearly, there is a disconnect between Liam Cohen and Brian Thomas Jr., and I think Clint Kubiak can get the most out of his players. Dante Thorne has made no impact on this season. Jack Besch popped again a little bit in this game. He had a play. He was blocking well, blah, blah, blah, blah. Trey Tucker has been nice this year. Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer have been awesome. So only time will tell what this means for the rest of the team, but for the time being... I don't expect the Raiders to make any moves at the trade deadline, but what we do expect is to hear from Clint Kubiak a little bit as he gets ready for Seattle. All right, ready when you are. When you look at video of the defense, are there things you see that we do with these sorts of things to get better or is there more depth in that? Well, I think it's just playing better four quarters. We've had solid halves. We've had more aggressive halves, and we've had some really bad first halves. So we've got to find a way to play a four-quarter game. What does it take to get off to a faster start? Multiple players mentioned the slow start to the locker room after the game. Yeah, well. Obviously, being able to have the mental toughness on long drives to finish drives out, even if it's with field goals. Okay, defense. Defensively, start there. Offensively, we had opportunities in that first drive. We had two of those three opportunities that we missed. We didn't miss. I know you're doing a nice thing for Kirk Cousins, but on that third down play, Trey Tucker is... Wide open for a touchdown. Wide open. We get to third and short on the very first third down of the game. We don't convert. We have a chance to move the chains right there. All right, so. You know, when you're opening up a game, you know, there's so many ways that a drive can go. But when you get to third and three in the first drive, you expect to convert and maintain possession right there. Now, second drive was much, much better. But, you know, overall, you look at just the play count, like 38 to 16 or 38 to 17. That's the exact opposite of how you want time of possession to go, you know, in a first half. But then you get the game, you get the game to 21 to 11 with the ball coming right back to you and you put yourself in position. Thank And, you know, we didn't play, we turned the ball over five times in the second half. seven points. So it's not going to give you opportunities to win any games. Thank you. Even late in the game, there's two out. We know defense gets an interception. We get a stop on fourth down and there's two chances to make that a 28-24 ball game. you. And we turn the football over. So shot ourselves in the foot. All right. Clint, now that you've been able to look at the film and maybe have a cooler head, I was curious, are you anticipating any significant changes on the defensive side of the ball? No, I don't. In fact, I see us doing the things. I want to just nip this in the bud right here. Rob Leonard is not getting fired. In the middle of the... Gone are the days where we fire coaches in the middle of the season without giving him a full chance. I totally understand wanting his head on a spike. I get it. We're not in these rooms. You're not watching the film. More than likely, you're not watching the film. We don't know how much of it is Rob Leonard's horrific scheme versus the players not executing versus people not knowing what they're doing. Every time a bad play happens, we always go to, well, it has to be Eric Stokes or it has to be Rob Leonard. It could be a combination of both. It could be one or it could be the other. But you're not always right every single time. Just like I'm not always right. More often than not, I'm not right. Okay, but it's how I package it that people keep coming back to watch. It does no one any good to fire somebody right now. That is not what we want. If at the end of the season we do not see the adjustments and the improvements that need to be had to get what we're doing in the second half going in the first half, then he needs to go. And if Todd Bowles is available, and you think Todd Bowles is clearly better than Rob Leonard, they need to go get Todd Bowles if they have the money and they want to spend the money and the funds to do so. But in the middle of the season, gone are those days. I'm tired of it. I want to see a full season. I want to see adjustments made. There's a reason he got the job. He's in the pressure cooker. He's on the hot seat. So let's see what happens when his back's against the wall. As we said, we're going to do better. Stand behind Rob. Stand behind our defensive staff. Stand behind our players. I think the world wants someone's head on a platter every time things don't go right. The way that I see it is that we brought people here for a reason to get a job done, develop players for the long haul and that's where we're going. Do you keep the faith and the plan and the process way? Because I see it work, just not for four quarters. You know. And, you know, I have belief. I have belief in the scheme we run. I have belief in the coaches that run it. I have belief in our play caller. I have belief in the players to execute. But as a group, as coaches and as players, is putting four quarters of football together, you know, no matter who the opponent. You know, you play a damn good offense in San Francisco, you know, there's got to be a happy medium somewhere between that first half and second half. Yes. After watching the film, I'd like to talk to you about three, Players in particular I thought had good days, if you could comment on them individually. Trayden Stukes, obviously I thought Jermod, getting early in his career, played extremely well. But I was also impressed with Trey Zoom prior to the injury. Did we read the same article on that? Could you discuss all three of them, please, individualistically? Yes, I'll start with 31. Playmaker, instinctive. Trainstorms. Just been really a shot of adrenaline to our operation. Second one you said was? Stukes? With Jarmod, just a player that's ascending, that's making us play multiple DBs because he's playing. Yep, they said the same thing about masses. Covering at a high level. I'm starting to speak now. He's improving. Again, there's a guy that we all didn't know if he was going to play football this year and is doing some. He's not missing practice. He's playing in games. He's staying healthy. He's progressing, getting better with reps. And then Trey Zune in two games has been a bright spot. We'll evaluate his health going into this next week. After halfway through the season, what would you say is the one thing you believe that your team has probably done the best through the first half of the season? Fight. Compete. Well, I think one thing that I'm proud of is that we're not talking about rebuilding. is that we're talking about We're talking about being in every game and winning every game. That's how we treat. You cannot deny the frustration that we're feeling during this season when we lose, other than maybe the Patriots game, is that, man, we're there. We're there with probably inferior talent and first-time coaching staffs. Like, we haven't felt this. I mean, look, there were moments during... The interim AP year. But it was still, like, there were games on that schedule. We lost to the Vikings, like, 3-0, didn't we? Or 7-0? Like, there were games that Pete Carroll coached where we got dished, like, ass-kicked. The Pete Carroll thing was horrific. Josh McDaniels for two years. Josh McDaniels, it was like, how are we going to lose this game? We lost nine one-score games, and then the next year he got fired. Before that, it was the Gruden-Basaccia year. And that was the last year it felt like, man, we're winning some games here. But even then, it was like we were 6-7, our backs against the wall. We got to rattle off a bunch of stuff. We got lucky in that season. It has not been since 2016 or maybe early 2017 that I felt any sort of morsel of confidence or any sort of frustration that, man, we could have won this game. That's a good feeling to have, even though in the moment, it's the worst feeling of all time. And that's how you know that things are getting better. So, look, I'm as mad as anybody when we lose, but it's about perspective. It's always, always, always about perspective. We treat it. You know, we're not looking at the future as coaches or players. You know, you develop the future on the way. But every game, we're talking about winning that game. We are not satisfied with a rebuilding process. So that's the mentality I want our players and coaches to have. So just going back to the defense, obviously with your focus being so much on offense, how much ability have you had to kind of spend time and have influence on the defense? You know, I spend a lot of time with the offense, and definitely there's more opportunities for me to be with special teams, to be with defense, and, you know, that's part of my job as I'm learning as I grow into the job. Dylan Labbe just continues to get better every single week. It seems like we asked you about him, and it's because he continues. I would like to say something about Dylan Labbe. And about myself, let me give myself the ball. I talked a lot of ---- on Dylan Labbe for two years because I liked when we drafted him, and then he got the ball and he would just fumble. And I was like, this guy's not an NFL player. What the hell? And I couldn't have been more wrong. So to Dylan Labbe and to his family and friends, I'm an idiot. I'm sorry. I apologize. I love you. And hopefully we can work past this little kerfuffle in our relationship. He used to do more. Would you elaborate again on his performance yesterday, please? Yes, I think a lot of it's been said last week, and I think what I said last week was that as he continues to make plays, the expectations grow, and then he meets and exceeds them again this week. But he doesn't do it alone. I think you've got to look at the entire part of it, the coaching on special teams and the players around them setting up blocks. So I think as a unit, the special teams has been a bright spot for us. Despite the fumbles, you know, Brock and Mike have been having the season that they have. Is there anything... I like that little wrinkle we did. I didn't like that we did it twice, but I like the little wrinkle we did where we flipped it to Dariq Young. That was sneaky. You know, after the game, we're in the process that you have to say to, like, you know, encourage them to keep their spirits high, or is it pretty easy for them to just kind of eliminate that and just get to the next play? Yeah, I think when you're a professional and you do things the right way, you know, 90% of the time, there's not a whole lot you need to say to those guys. They're harder on themselves. I don't think there's anything you can do against the peanut punch, which is why I think it should be a five-yard penalty. It should not be an automatic first down, but it should be a five-yard penalty if you do it and it doesn't succeed. You're just punching somebody. Can I? Okay. The peanut punch. Excuse me. The peanut punch is an awesome play. Shout out to Peanut Tillman. It is literally impossible to stop. Everybody's holding the ball high and tight and protecting it like you're supposed to. And there's nothing you can do. That's why when Brock fumbled, I wasn't mad at him. When Michael Mayer fumbled at the one, I wasn't mad at him. You cannot protect against the peanut punch. And if they go to punch the ball and they miss and they punch you in the head or they punch you in the arm, it's just not a penalty. My solution is the peanut punch should be a five-yard penalty, but not an automatic first down. So if it's first and 10. And you throw a two-yard out, okay, and you get tackled, it would be second and eight. But if they do the peanut punch and they don't get it, instead of it being a first and ten, it is now a second and three. That's it. Just a five-yard penalty. Not the worst thing in the world. But if you attempt it and you miss and you hit someone, how is that not the definition of unnecessary roughness? Because it's just so hard to protect against. Or maybe you get a warning on the first one and then the second one's a whatever. I just think there should be some sort of way to counteract it, and there isn't. If they punch the ball, it's coming out. Oh, I pressed the wrong thing. Excuse me. Did a great job of forcing some balls out. But, you know, those are two of our best players that we really count on making the improvement going into the next game. You just talked about wanting to spend more time with them in finishing groups. Obviously, your main focus is the offense right now, but with the defense now allowing 30 more points in the last six weeks, are you going to – do you see yourself emphasizing or maybe spending a little bit more time with them to try to get that turned around the other way? Any area of the team that, you know, that we're not – They're not meeting the standard we want to meet. You're going to spend extra time there, yes. It looked like Brock might have reached the ball over the goal line on that contention run in the fourth quarter. What went into the process of not challenging that call? As it was going upstairs, we didn't feel like we had the confident look. And so, uh... In hindsight, it looks like you might have broke the plane right there. there. So. In real time, that was the information we got. We stayed on the ball and we got stuffed and then we got an offensive pass interference and then we throw a pick. We've got to find a way to get that ball in regardless. We did not. We missed out on that one. There's 14 points that we missed out on that. Makes that a much closer game. There was a play where Tonka and Adam go back in coverage and you had Tonka covering Christian McCaffrey. Great question. I'm not blaming either one of them on that play. Was that a situation where another player just had an execution issue? It was. We did not peel on the halfback. That was not those guys' job though. All right, any injury updates? Okay, so what Clint Kubiak is saying there is that that was not what the defense was supposed to have done. It was an execution problem from the team. Now, you could say, okay, we've got to coach them better so they know that they need to do that. That's fine. Okay, if you want to have that thing, that's fine. But to say, Robbie Leonard, you put Tonka Hemingway on Christian McCaffrey, that is not what he was trying to do. There you go. Not, no, none yet. Just evaluate Trey throughout the week. After just looking back at it, what do you make of Kirk's decision-making in the three interceptions? Kirk has been an extremely solid decision-maker all season. There's ones he wants back. He wants back the first play, second half. Thank Okay, I don't know what just happened. My camera just went out. Stand by. Stand by for one second as we attempt to bring back the camera. I believe you could hear me, so that's good. Um... Okay, there I am. I mean, I'm leaving all this in. you. Just so you could see the inner workings. What the hell happened? All right, well, I gotta edit this. And we're back. Okay, I don't know what just happened there. The press conference is essentially over, so we got one more thing to talk about. And it's a fun little Tom Brady thing. I just thought, you know, why not bring it up? Peace of our own. All right. True or false, the Raiders will win the Super Bowl by 2030. Oh, man, that's tough. True. True. Oh, we're going deep here. We got a true, so we can use this in 2030. Yeah, you can use it. You'll be a guest with me. Come on. I gotta be honest with you. I do think there's a world where we definitely can compete for a Super Bowl by 2030. We're already scoring a lot of points without Mendoza in the game, and that would be his, what, third or fourth year of starting completely. He might be extension eligible. We gotta be at least competing for the division. Patrick Mahomes will be closer to 40, then he will be closer to 30, which would be nice. So, yeah. Shout out. Join the Discord. Link in the description below. It's a big group chat with all these Raider fans that are watching me, or maybe not watching me. You send it to your friends. We have a good time in there all the time. Look, here's the thing. Shout out to my $5 and $10 patrons and YouTube members. If you want to become one of these beautiful people, link in the description below. Big join button linked below. Hit that like button. Comment away. And please be sure to subscribe to Sprout to no charge. I love you guys. Yes, yes, yes.