Film room: How has Bennett looked so far?

Diving into the second-year pro’s performance through two games

Cornerback was a big question mark heading into the season for the Las Vegas Raiders as the position group is very young. One player in particular who some were hesitant about was Jakorian Bennett.

Bennett struggled as a rookie, going from a Week 1 starter to riding the bench at the end of last year. However, after a strong offseason and preseason, he earned a bigger role leading into year two.

According to Pro Football Focus, he had a strong debut in the Raiders’ season opener against the Los Angeles Chargers with no catches surrendered on two targets while logging a pass breakup and earning a 71.6 coverage grade.

Despite adding two more PBUs in Week 2 against the Baltimore Ravens, Bennett’s mark in coverage from PFF was below average at 54.0. The site had him on the hook for three catches (off six targets) for 40 yards and two missed tackles in Baltimore which might explain the difference in his grades from week to week.

Is this a situation where PFF’s grading is off? And how well has the 2023 fourth-round pick been playing so far? Let’s flip on the tape and find out.

We’ll start by getting some of the bad reps out of the way to end on a high note. Bennett doesn’t get targeted here but gets lucky that Lamar Jackson wasn’t looking his way because this might have been a touchdown.

The Raiders are running quarters or Cover 4 which, for an outside cornerback, is essentially man-to-man. Rashod Bateman, the Ravens’ wide receiver, runs an out-and-up and Bennett bites pretty hard on the out route or double move. That forces him to speed turn and play from behind where a ball thrown on the numbers at the 10-yard-line will be six points or at least an explosive play.

This is one example of the corner getting lucky since the ball doesn’t come his way, but this rep does help explain the lower than expected coverage grade in Week 2.

Here we’ll have a similar rep where Bennett gets turned around at the top of the route, but the ball comes his way this time for a first-down and a roughly 20-yard gain.

Las Vegas brings the house with a Cover 0 call, leaving him on an island. Pre-snap, he’s smart to play with inside leverage since he has no safety help and wants to force the quarterback to make a long throw toward the sideline. However, it looks like he doesn’t trust his leverage and lets Bateman get to square on him, negating his pre-snap advantage.

Additionally, the corner gets turned around at the top of the route and falls for the fake to the inside by the wide receiver. That leaves the quarterback with plenty of room to make that throw rather than having to fit the ball into a tight window near the sideline.

If Bennett stays inside and uses leverage steps to maintain his position while Bateman stems inside, he’d be in a good position where he’s protecting himself against the dig route and can drive on or undercut the out route to take it away or make a play on the ball. However, once the receiver gets to square, the receiver has a two-way go which leaves the cornerback guessing.

We’re going back to Week 1 and this is another rep where Bennett gets lucky.

Las Vegas is in man coverage again and Los Angeles runs Double China which is a common concept to call in the red zone. Bennett is one-on-one with Ladd McConkey in the slot and, again, he lets the receiver square him up and have a two-way go. That combined with missing with his hands allows McConkey win and create separation.

However, Bennett does get lucky with McConkey breaking toward the sideline instead of the back pylon. Had the wide receiver run the route correctly, this is a touchdown.

Moving onto a few of Bennett’s positive reps as he has made a handful of really nice plays this year to provide optimism for the rest of the season.

The Maryland product has always been best in press man coverage which is what Las Vegas runs in the clip above. He shows good patience at the line of scrimmage, not biting on Nelson Agholor’s inside jab step on Agholor’s release and keeping his hips square until Agholor releases to the outside.

From there, that’s where Bennett’s speed takes over as he stays in the receiver’s hip throughout the route. To finish, he does a great job of attacking the catchpoint once the receiver flashes his hands to get the PBU and prevent an explosive play.

That’s a quality rep that forces the Ravens into a long field goal attempt which they missed. Considering this was a three-point game, a play like this becomes even more significant in the big picture.

This next clip is from the season opener and it’s almost identical to the one above. Again, Bennett is in press coverage, shows great patience at the line of scrimmage and makes a good play on the ball at the catch point.

What also stands out about this rep is he forces the receiver to the sideline which gives the quarterback no room to complete the pass. Even if he didn’t get a PBU on this one, it’d still be a forced incompletion as both of Quentin Johnston’s feet land out of bounds.

We’ll end with Bennett’s best play from the first two weeks of the campaign, and it’s even more impressive than what the broadcast angle showed on TV.

Las Vegas is in man coverage which gets tipped by Baltimore’s pre-snap motion since Bennett follows Zay Flowers across he formation. Post-snap, Bennett effectively communicates the switch with Jack Jones, passing off Flowers to Jones.

Jackson sees that and thinks he has Bateman open on the curl route right at the sticks. However, Bennett picks up his new man (Bateman), drives on the route and plays the receiver’s hands at the catchpoint, tipping the ball to Robert Spillane’s for an interception.

This is an excellent rep that shows a ton of growth from the second-year pro as he’s starting to pick up the mental part of the game and combining that with his physical tools.

Overall, Bennett still has room for growth this season, most notably by not letting receivers get to square on him when playing off coverage. But he has shown a good amount of growth in the early stages of the year that is encouraging for his development. It certainly seems like the game is starting to slow down for the 2023 fourth-round pick and we’re seeing a few examples of his natural skills shine through.