Last year, the Las Vegas Raiders had a lot of young players at linebacker, but this season, they favored older veterans. This left players like Amari Gainer on the chopping block.
He spent much of the offseason with the Raiders before they decided to waive him before the season. Gainer wasn’t brought back on the practice squad and hasn’t had a chance to land with another team until now.
The New England Patriots announced that they have signed the 25-year-old linebacker to the practice squad.
Gainer was originally an undrafted free agent signing with the Raiders last year. He played in all 17 games, but was mostly limited to a special teams role. Notably, Gainer played with Patriots quarterback Drake Maye at North Carolina.
He will also run into some other familiar faces from last season. Former Raiders linebacker Robert Spillane and offensive lineman Thayer Munford both joined the Patriots this year after playing in Las Vegas last season.
Gainer should know Spillane very well, which should make the transition easier. He’s a strong athlete who hasn’t gotten too much of a chance to play defensive snaps, and he could be intersting player for the Patriots to develop the rest of the season.
Pete Carroll Talks Patrick Graham
Speaking of the Patriots, two of their former coaches are responsible for running the Raiders’ defense this season. Head coach Pete Carroll and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham both have a New England background, but they have very different defensive philosophies.
The two have tried their best to merge the two philosophies with mixed results. Carroll recently spoke about how the process has been with Graham.
“Yeah, well, there’s a number that’s really telling here, and it’s third-and-ones and twos, and the number of them, we’ve had more than anybody in the NFL by a bit,” Carroll said Wednesday. “And so, that opportunity to get – and we’re basically average in getting off the field in those situations, but we just had too many of them.
“And so, that does come back to what’s going on on second down and the way the offenses are attacking us, and they’re patient to go ahead and just get to the third down situations. We’ve played some really good third-and-short teams as well, and the numbers are just out of whack. And I can’t even imagine, I think we have 32 third-and-ones already. I think that’s the number, something like that.”
Raiders Need Defensive Overhaul
Between the offense and the defense, the offense has easily been the Raiders’ biggest problem this season. This came as a surprise, as many expected the offense to be superior.
Graham is a very good coach, but the team hasn’t given him a lot of talent to work with. He has survived three different head coaches, but it might be time for the Raiders to start over on that side of the ball. The defense hasn’t made enough strides during Graham’s tenure. He’ll land another defensive coordinator job if the Raiders move on, but he might not be a fit in Las Vegas anymore.
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