The NFL is a star-driven league. You need to have five to six star players in order to win a Super Bowl. That is just the cold hard truth. The good news is that the Raiders have done an excellent job of adding top-end talent to their roster over the past few offseasons.
In a recent article by Pro Football Focus, they ranked each team’s top three players entering the 2024 season. For the Raiders, it wasn’t much of a surprise for who was named. Here is what the site had to say about Davante Adams, Maxx Crosby and Kolton Miller:
It was a down year for the Raiders’ offense, as no player earned an overall grade above 82.0. Davante Adams recorded his lowest receiving grade since 2017, but a lot of that was beyond his control — even if PFF grades are there to judge beyond production. He’s still Davante Adams.
Kolton Miller earned the highest overall offensive grade on the team (81.1), marking his third straight year of topping 81.0.
Maxx Crosby was once again brilliant, earning an 82.7 overall grade with a 92.7 run-defense grade.
Crosby, Miller, and Adams are the franchise’s cornerstone players, and all three had fantastic 2023 seasons. Adams is the only player of the three who could see a dropoff in his play due to his age, but that isn’t expected to be the case.
The Raiders hope that someone like Christian Wilkins, Tyree Wilson, or Brock Bowers can crack this list next year as they try to improve the roster’s overall talent level. But the Raiders do have a strong core that will keep them competitive this year and beyond.
