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Cory Littleton is the Raiders biggest ‘X factor’ heading into 2021 season

marcus mosher
·2 min read
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During the 2020 offseason, the Raiders thought they finally upgraded their linebacker unit after it was the team’s Achilles’ heel for the past decade. They signed former Pro Bowler Cory Littleton to a lucrative three-year deal, making him one of the highest-paid linebackers in football.

However, Littleton didn’t live up to that contract in Year 1 as he was a shell of himself in Las Vegas. The once-great coverage linebacker struggled so much that the Raiders took him off the field in certain situations. The Raiders are hoping that with new defensive coordinator Gus Bradley in the fold, he can return to his Pro Bowl play that we saw during his time with the Rams.

In a recent article by Ben Linsey of Pro Football Focus, he named every team’s biggest “X factor” for the 2021 season. For the Raiders, it was none other than Littleton. Here is what the site had to say about the veteran linebacker heading into the season:

“Cory Littleton was supposed to highlight Las Vegas’ linebacker group after the Raiders signed him to a three-year, $35.25 million contract last offseason. Instead, he was thoroughly outplayed by Nick Kwiatkoski and Nicholas Morrow in a disappointing 2020 debut with the team. Littleton ranked in the 99th percentile of all off-ball linebackers in coverage grade during his final two seasons with the Rams, and the former undrafted free agent getting back to that form would go a long way towards the Raiders turning things around defensively.”

If Littleton can start to play at the level we saw in 2018 and 2019, the defense could be significantly better this season. Littleton is a special player in coverage and that’s the type of player this defense has been missing for several years.

Look for Littleton, who is likely to play exclusively as a weakside linebacker in 2021, to have a much better season in Year 2 with the Raiders. They certainly need him to be better or this signing could be just another one of many free-agent mistakes by Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock.