Raiders Roster 2025: Darnay Holmes, Thomas Harper prime candidates for slot cornerback

Veteran and second-year defender slated to vie for key nickel role for Las Vegas

With key departures via free agency and outright releasing another starter, questions are abound in the Las Vegas Raiders secondary — particularly at cornerback.

The Silver & Black must identify starting corners at both boundary/outside spots and the vital slot position in nickel alignments. Fortunately for head coach Pete Carroll and his coaching staff, the position group isn’t devoid of talent.

Through the offseason so and incumbents remaining on the roster, the Raiders’ cornerback room has intriguing young talent. In fact the oldest cornerbacks currently on the roster are: Darnay Holmes, Eric Stokes, and Sam Webb who are all 26. The youngest in the room is Kyu Blu Kelly.

Thus, we’re likely to see an open competition for starting spots with Jakorian Bennett, who enter his third year at age 24, a leading candidate to earn an outside starting gig. 2024 NFL Draft pick Decamerion Richardson and Stokes are likely to vie for the other perimeter spot opposite Bennett.

But let’s focus on the interior.

The prime candidates to be the Silver & Black slot machines in 2024: Holmes and safety Thomas Harper.

The Raiders re-signed Holmes at the onset of free agency and he brings familiarity to Graham’s defensive concepts as the duo spent two seasons with the New York Giants (2020-21). Harper was a waiver claim on cut down day last offseason from the Los Angeles Chargers and with him came the three-year undrafted free agent deal he signed with the Bolts. The 24-year-old is under contract until the end of the 2026 season and is listed as a safety. But Harper’s collegiate experience saw him take snaps in the slot and at safety for Notre Dame.

That duo are up first to replace Nate Hobbs, who manned the slot corner role for four seasons in Las Vegas after getting drafted in the fifth round of the 2021 draft from Illinois. Now with the Green Bay Packers, Hobbs’ departure creates a void.

Under defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, the Raiders rarely fielded three linebackers at the same time. The 4-2-5 nickel alignment was more base formation than anything and that normally meant four down lineman, two linebackers, and five defensive backs (three of which are cornerbacks).

Hobbs was more than just mere cornerback in that alignment as he often played very close to the line of scrimmage and acted as a hybrid corner/linebacker that can be an enforcer against the run as a blitzer and reliable tackler. Of course, there was a drawback to that ability as Hobbs (who is 6-feet and 195 pounds) was often hampered by injuries — he only played in 11 games in 2024, 13 and 11 in 2023 and 2022, respectively, while playing in 16 his rookie season.

Graham is back is the defensive play caller and it’ll be interesting to see if there are changes to the system/scheme now that Carroll is Raiders boss (as he has a strong defensive background, too).

Nonetheless, the slot corner role is expected to be vital again and both Holmes and Harper are of similar build at 5-foot-10 and 195 pounds. Both fall well short of the 32-inch arm threshold Carroll is known for at 29 ¹⁄₂ inches and 29 3/8 inches, respectively. But, during his days as Seattle Seahawks head coach, Carroll did have outliers on the preferred traits for nickel cornerbacks in Tre Brown, 2021 draft, 30 3/8 inch arms and Coby Bryant, 2022 draft, 30 5/8 inch arms.

Holmes, a five-year veteran, unsurprisingly has the advantage in NFL games and snaps on his resume (70 career games, 12 starts, 1,716 snaps on defense) compared to Harper (15 games, four starts, 191 snaps on defense in 2024 as a rookie). And the battle will commence all offseason and camp to determine who can handle the workload.

Both Holmes and Harper don’t boast ideal length (Hobbs brought 31 ¹⁄₂ inch arms to the position, for context) but have the requisite demeanor required to be equal parts cover men and run defenders. Both are aggressive at the point of attack but the lack of long arms and size can hurt and help as they can be washed out quickly or get lost in the shuffle and break free for plays behind or at the line of scrimmage.

The other in-house options who can compete for slot snaps are M.J. Devonshire and Kelly.

Devonshire earned slot corner snaps in camp last season after being a seventh-round pick in the 2024 draft faring better inside than outside during preseason games. But the 5-foot-11 and 186-pound defender was waived on cut down day and brought back to the practice squad. Kelly, who has familiarity with Carroll and has 32-inch arms on his 6-foot, 191 pound frame played outside and inside during his collegiate days at Stanford.

There’s also a high likelihood Raiders general manager John Spytek and Carroll are far from done building the roster, so additional competition may arrive during next weekend’s draft or after as teams scramble to ink undrafted free agents.

Unless the Raiders bring in a talent like Texas Longhorns’ Jahdae Barron, a cornerback who profiles as a big nickel corner/safety in the NFL (due to lack of ideal length with 29 5/8 inch arms), in the draft, expect Holmes and Harper to be in a dogfight to claim the slot corner role.