Raiders may have stumbled unwittingly into a valuable future piece

It's safe to say that the 2024 season hasn't gone to plan for the Las Vegas Raiders. The team is 2-10 overall, and enters its Week 14 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on an eight-game losing streak. An argument absolutely can be made that they won't win another game for the remainder of the year.

As expected for a 2-10 team, the Raiders don't do much well. Running the football has been the team's biggest weakness, arguably. Las Vegas has averaged just 78.1 rushing yards per game - ranking them last in the NFL. Yes, even the Dallas Cowboys passed them.

Zamir White entered the year as the team's RB1, hoping to carry the momentum he gained late in the 2023 season, but that didn't go to plan. Alexander Mattison was next in line, but he struggled mightily and is now injured. Even Ameer Abdullah got a shot and struggled. With that in mind, the Raiders turned to undrafted rookie Sincere McCormick for some work during their Week 12 game. He impressed, earning a larger role in Week 13. That went better than they could've imagined.

Raiders might've accidentally stumbled into a future valuable player

McCormick had five carries for 33 yards in Week 12, and followed that up with 12 carries for 64 yards in Week 13. He averaged 5.3 yards per attempt, which for a Raiders team that has had a miserable time running the football, is nothing short of extraordinary.

This was McCormick's third career NFL game. It was his second game getting real offensive snaps. To do what he did under those circumstances against the Kansas City Chiefs on Black Friday in a game that they somehow almost stole was truly awesome to see.

Can we label McCormick a future star running back based on what he did against the Chiefs? No, of course not. Can we say we're intrigued and want to see more? Absolutely.

McCormick has little to no competition in this Raiders running back room, as evidenced by the team's shockingly poor performance on the ground this season. Giving him a ton of work down the stretch could wind up going a long way for Las Vegas.

If he struggles, perhaps he's nothing more than a backup in the organization or even gets cut. If he continues to impress, however, is it crazy to suggest that the team can focus on improving elsewhere? This Raiders team has a ton of holes, and it'd be awesome if McCormick could fill one of them.

Even if he doesn't develop into a star, McCormick might be something. Considering the Raiders got him for nothing, that can prove to be extremely valuable for a franchise in dire need of any sort of value it can come across.