Film room: What can Holmes bring to Raiders?

Cornerback is a depth piece who can play inside and outside

Especially with Brandon Facyson getting placed on injured reserve, the Las Vegas Raiders needed a veteran presence at cornerback after cutdown day. So, Tom Telesco brought in someone familiar with Patrick Graham’s system by signing Darnay Holmes, who played for Graham during his first two seasons with the New York Giants.

The Giants cut Holmes at the end of training camp, but he can be a solid depth piece on the Raiders’ roster this season. The four-year pro has primarily been a slot corner during his career, and Las Vegas needs a backup at that spot. He also has some experience out on the boundary which is a bonus.

So, let’s take a look at a couple of games to see what he can bring to the table—Week 10 of last season against the Dallas Cowboys where he took 15 snaps in the slot and 22 at wide corner, and the Giants’ final preseason game against the New York Jets where he almost exclusively played Nickelback.

While this is far from the sexiest rep, dig routes can be a killer against Cover 3 especially when paired with play action since the linebackers step downhill to protect against the run. However, Holmes makes a nice play here by reading and anticipating the dig route, taking that away from the quarterback.

Now, I will point out that the quarterback should throw the deep crossing route that is wide open, but that has nothing to do with Holmes.

Again, this isn’t going to make the highlight reel at the end of the year but a veteran with good instincts is what the Raiders’ young cornerback room needed heading into the season.

This time, Holmes makes a nice play to put on the highlight tape.

The Giants are running a fire zone and he does a good job of staying on top of the route so that he doesn’t get beat deep or up the seam. That also shows a good understanding of the coverage, knowing he has help underneath to cover any short routes.

Simultaneously, the corner keeps his eyes on and reads the quarterback. That allows the corner to jump the route and come down with the interception when the quarterback makes a poor decision under pressure.

Holmes isn’t the best in man coverage but does have solid instincts to be effective when playing zone.

That being said, this is a nice rep in man coverage from the former Giant as he can be effective against drag routes where he doesn’t have to rely on his change of direction skills as much. Also, Holmes uses his hands well to help stay in phase or on the wide receiver’s hip.

There isn’t much room for the quarterback to complete this pass since Holmes is all over the receiver and able to contest the catch despite not getting help from the safety/robber to protect the sideline. The ball has to be thrown low and away, otherwise, it will be a PBU or interception since the corner is in a position to disrupt the catch point.

For clarity, this was ruled a catch on the field but overturned on replay review.

Back to zone coverage, the situation here is third and long with the Jets running a variation of a flood concept where the second slot receiver runs a go route, the inside slot receiver has the deep out and the outside receiver runs a short curl.

The offense is hoping Holmes takes the bait and tries to take away the curl route so they can hit the out route for a first down. However, he stays deep in his zone and forces the quarterback to check the ball down. To finish, he rallies to the ball and gets involved in the tackle, forcing a fourth down.

Another smart play by the veteran corner.

To be an effective nickel corner, defensive backs have to be able to help in run support. While Holmes isn’t good at getting off blocks, he can be effective by using his instincts and athleticism to defeat blocks.

Here, the Jets run a pin-and-pull concept where the outside receiver is trying to pin him inside and the left tackle pulls to block the other corner, in theory. But Holmes recognizes the play and uses his speed to cross the receiver’s face, forcing the tackle to block him instead of the other corner which gives the defense an unblocked defender.

As a side note, that other corner needs to do a better job of staying wide so he can take advantage. However, the Giants get away with it since the running back cuts up the field, which could also be a result of Holmes beating the wide receiver’s block and getting a two-for-one.

This time, Holmes is lined up in the box against the two-tight end formation from the Jets. He’s technically responsible for anything outside of that second tight end (No. 48), however, the defensive end gets reached or scooped out of his gap. So, Holmes ‘makes the defensive end right’ by adjusting on the fly by shooting the D-gap (between the two tight ends) and getting involved in the tackle. Another example of some impressive instincts.

Now, to accurately paint the picture as the fourth-year pro is far from a perfect player, the compilation above shows a few of Holmes’ bad reps in those two games. To me, what’s most concerning about him is his change of direction is sub-par and his tackling is inconsistent.

Holmes often stumbles out of his breaks and struggles to transition which is problematic in man coverage. Also, he had three missed tackles last week against the Jets and has a career miss rate of 13.7 percent, according to Pro Football Focus.

That being said, no backup player is perfect and he can contribute off the bench for Las Vegas while Facyson is out.