Las Vegas Raiders defender named team’s most underrated player

Las Vegas Raiders forward Malcolm Koonce has exploded in his third season in the NFL. The Buffalo product got his first chance to start and made the most of it, totaling eight sacks and a career-high 52 pressures during the 2023 campaign.

Heading into 2024, talented youngster Edge Rusher is ranked by Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire as the most underrated player on the team.

Here’s a look at what Farrar wrote about the Raiders rusher:

In 2014, the Raiders selected Khalil Mack with the fifth overall pick in the 2014 draft out of Buffalo, and it worked out pretty well for them. They went back to the well in 2021, taking Buffalo edge player Malcolm Koonce with the 80th overall pick in the third round. Not that Koonce came out with Mack’s ground skills, but he put up some pretty good numbers in college, and he was the defensive MVP of the 2019 Bahamas Bowl with two sacks against Charlotte in what turned out to be Buffalo’s first victory in a bowl game.

Yet Koonce had very little playtime in his first two seasons with the Raiders – he had a total of two sacks and six pressures in 2021 and 2022 on just 73 passing snaps. But if given a chance in 2023, Koonce really showed what he could do — he had eight sacks and 52 total pressures, and the only Raiders passer that was most productive last season was Maxx Crosby.

It’s difficult to dispute Farrar’s choice here. Koonce definitely goes unnoticed thanks to his play alongside one of the best passers in the game, Maxx Crosby.

Koonce will start again in 2024, but he could be pushed by second-year defensive end Tyree Wilson, who will hopefully be able to contribute more after a disappointing rookie campaign.

However, if Koonce can continue to play at the level he displayed last season, it will be difficult for Wilson to surpass him on the depth chart. And, in turn, Koonce will prepare for a good move in free agency in 2025, assuming the Raiders don’t extend him before then.

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