5 players who the Las Vegas Raiders need to be great in 2020
By Brad Weiss
3. Trayvon Mullen, CB
During the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft, the Oakland Raiders selected Trayvon Mullen, a talented cornerback out of Clemson. Mullen was fresh off being named the defensive MVP of the national title game, a game that general manager Mike Mayock scouted heavily in his first real assignment with the team.
After working his way into the starting lineup, Mullen really started to excel late in the season, and the hope is that he is going to be the team’s CB1 for the long haul. Mullen is solid in coverage, has soft hands, and the plan this offseason was to start building the cornerback room around him.
To help Mullen out, the Raiders drafted Damon Arnette from Ohio State in the first round, giving the Raiders to potentially talented, and young corners in the starting lineup. In addition, guys like Isaiah Johnson and Keisean Nixon will have to step up in Year No. 2, and if they can do that, this group suddenly becomes a strength.
This is a position group that has been an issue for some time now, but Mullen proved to be a shutdown guy last season, and they are putting talent around him. Was Arnette a reach? We won’t know until the games get going, but he is an Alpha on the corner, and Gruden and Mayock obviously saw something they liked on tape.