Raiders DE Clelin Ferrell Settling Into Backup Position

Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Clelin Ferrell didn’t live up to expectations last season.

Drafted with the fourth overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, Ferrell is far from achieving what was expected out of him with that much draft stock.

However, last season, he became a backup to defensive end Yannick Ngakoue, who then this offseason was traded to the Indianapolis Colts for cornerback Rock Ya-Sin.

With the addition of defensive end Chandler Jones this offseason, Ferrell is effectively going to be a backup again this season.

“I saw him play some snaps in some different packages yesterday,” Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels said. “And that’s always good to get a guy out there and have some opportunity to play in the preseason and do some things that we want to see him do. It was good to get him back out there.”

Ferrell has moved around some by McDaniels during the final preseason game, just to see what else he can do on the field.

“He was involved in the pass rush some, dropped into coverage actually a couple of times. There’s a lot of things we ask those guys to do on the edge, Cle [Clelin Ferrell] has definitely got to try to make up for a little bit of lost time here, but that’s okay. That’s what these practices going forward will be about for him.”