What condition the position is in: Assessing Raiders level of need at safety

With free agency a month away, it’s time to check in on the Raiders’ safety position to give it a condition of either Strong, Stable, Unstable, Serious, or Critical.


Starters: Isaiah Pola-Mao, ??




Backups: Thomas Harper, Trey Taylor, Chris Smith II




Free agents: Tre’von Moehrig, Marcus Epps




Moehrig and Epps were the Raiders two starting safeties the past two seasons and were a very good duo. Epps ended up getting injured in week three and was lost for the season. Meanwhile Moehrig had his best season in his contract year, setting career-highs in tackles (104), tackles for loss (five) and pass breakups (10). He was also used a lot more on the blitz and proved quite effective at it.


Epps was replaced in the starting lineup by Pola-Mao who had his moments, but was very inconsistent, ranging from some very good games to some very bad ones. Undrafted rookie Thomas Harper also entered as an injury replacement late in the season. The other were mostly relegated to special teams.


Condition: Serious




Having your two starters both headed for free agency is not good. Moehrig was non-committal on his future at the end of the season. Probably because his market should be pretty good after his play the past season and a half. And Epps seems to be flying under the radar, but he too was pretty good.


Regardless, if the Raiders let either or both of these guys leave, they will need to replace them. And the jury is still out on whether Pola-Mao can be that guy. Either get these guys back or bring someone else in. There’s no way around that.









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