John Spytek praises Raiders free agent signing

When the Las Vegas Raiders lost safety Tre’Von Moehrig to the Carolina Panthers, general manager John Spytek immediately locked down his replacement with former Washington Commanders safety Jeremy Chinn.

Playing 71 games between the Commanders and Carolina Panthers, Chinn’s value comes in the form of his versatility. Chinn has played over 1,000 snaps at safety and outside linebacker, almost 1,000 in the slot, and even has some reps at inside linebacker. With the Raiders still having questions all along the back end of their defense, having a movable chess piece like Chinn guarantees that the Raiders have an answer at least somewhere.

After an impressive showing at OTAs, Chinn drew the praise of Spytek for his hard work.

Spytek’s comments on Chinn suggest some comfort with their current roster, despite analysts saying otherwise.

When discussing Chinn, Spytek praised how the veteran could be deployed all across the field in a number of situations, giving the coaching staff some level of freedom to experiment.

“He’s like a big nickel,” Spytek said, per ESPN’s Ryan McFadden. “You love his size on the edge, his ability to blitz [and] support the run. Then he’s a guy that can still drop and play as part of the deep coverage, too.”

Despite the Raiders being linked to the likes of Miami Dolphins cornerback Jalen Ramsey throughout the offseason, the team has yet to make a move to solidify their secondary.

Currently, the replacement for Nate Hobbs at slot cornerback is slated to be Darnay Holmes, who knows defensive coordinator Patrick Graham’s scheme but lacks starting experience. Perhaps the Raiders think about placing Jakorian Bennett at that spot, especially after he was running with the second-team defense behind Eric Stokes and Darien Porter during OTAs. However, Spytek’s comments about Chinn potentially seeing time in that spot suggests that the Raiders intend to take full advantage of his versatility.

“He’s got such an amazing skill set for a man of his size,” Spytek continued. “And you love the intelligence and the instincts that go with it.”

With Chinn receiving heavy praise, it will be intriguing to see how Graham deploys his new defensive weapon.