Not everybody is ready to crown the Raiders after three straight wins, but ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky is firmly in the camp that sees something real in this start.
“The Raiders look legit,” Orlovsky said on the Pat McAfee Show on Monday. “It does not look like a fluke through three weeks.”
He singled out three names when explaining why the Raiders have impressed him so much: Kirk Cousins, Brock Bowers and Nakobe Dean.
Cousins, in Orlovsky’s view, is the reason the Raiders can keep the No. 1 overall pick, Fernando Mendoza, on the shelf for now. Pat McAfee framed the conversation the way it’s been going around the team lately - they’re 3-0, they have the top pick, and they don’t need to rush anything.
“As fast as Brock Purdy is playing, I think I can say the same stuff for Kirk Cousins,” he said. “He is getting through their offense so quick. The ball is coming out so quickly.”
That quick trigger has been a big part of the bet Klint Kubiak made when he chose Cousins over Mendoza. Through three games, Cousins has thrown 9 touchdown passes and 3 interceptions on 92 attempts, and he’s been sacked just 5 times.
That’s roughly one sack every 18 attempts, a shade better than the NFL average. More importantly for Orlovsky’s point, Cousins isn’t lingering in the pocket.
He’s moving through reads fast and getting the ball out immediately, with NextGen stats putting his average Time to Throw at 2.4 seconds.
Bowers gave Orlovsky another reason to like what he’s seeing. The tight end returned in Week 3 in New Orleans after knee surgery in the first week of September, and the Raiders didn’t ease him back in.
“ Brock Bowers is unbelievable,” he said. “He steps right in.
I think he went 10 for a buck fifteen and a touchdown. They had him doing George Kittle, Travis Kelce type stuff, winning on releases, putting him by himself.”
Bowers actually finished with 10 catches for 116 yards and a touchdown, but the larger point held: the Raiders used him as a centerpiece, not a warm-up act. They isolated him, let him work off the line, and he immediately looked like their top offensive weapon again.
Orlovsky’s third takeaway came on the other side of the ball, where Nakobe Dean has become a force.
“Nakobe Dean could be the best linebacker in football,” Orlovsky said. “I think he’s got like 30 tackles, three forced fumbles, three and a half sacks. He’s totally changed their defense.”
Dean’s actual numbers are 3 forced fumbles, 22 solo tackles, 5 assisted tackles, 1.5 sacks, 3 tackles for loss and 2 quarterback hits. Even with Orlovsky’s sack total off, the message was clear: Dean has been a disruptive presence every week, knocking the ball loose and blowing up plays before they can develop.
Safety Jeremy Chinn echoed that impact in a comment to ESPN, saying, “He’s been the glue to our defense.” Chinn added, “It’s crazy how much a linebacker in the middle of the field can make such a difference in the back end and front end.”
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