Film room: What does Chinn bring to Raiders?

Diving into what the new safety brings to the table

After Tre’von Moehrig inked a massive three-year, $51 million contract with the Carolina Panthers, one of the Las Vegas Raiders’ first moves of free agency was signing former Panthers and Washington Commanders safety Jeremy Chinn to a two-year, $16.3 million deal.

Chinn has become known as a versatile safety during his five seasons in the NFL, logging over 1,600 snaps in the box, nearly 1,100 over the slot and 950 at free safety, according to Pro Football Focus. He’s also taken about 350 snaps on the line of scrimmage as a standup outside linebacker to add to his Swiss-army-knife skill set.

While the 2020 second-round pick isn’t an elite talent by any means, he’s a solid player with a well-rounded game. For example, he posted decent PFF grades in both phases of the game last year, earning a 72.2 mark against the run and 66.2 in coverage during the regular season.

So, let’s flip on the tape and see a few examples of what the 27-year-old can bring to Las Vegas, starting with his run defense.

Tackling is one of the first elements of Chinn’s game that stands out on tape. He racked up 117 total tackles last season, tying a career high and the most since his rookie season, while ranking sixth among safeties with 20 defensive stops against the run during the regular season, per PFF. The clip above is a good example of how he can make an impact in the ground game.

The Giants motion a wide receiver across the formation, which gets the Commanders to shift into a one-high look and five-man front where Chinn rolls into the box to replace the linebacker. That sets up New York’s read option off an inside zone call where the offense is looking to attack the backside of the play with the defensive end pinching into the B-gap and the outside backer/edge defender accounting for the quarterback on the option.

So, it’s one-on-one between the running back and the safety, the matchup the offense wants. However, Chinn doesn’t flinch, crashing downhill and dropping his pads to make a great tackle for a short gain.

Something Raider Nation will love about Chinn is that he doesn’t back down and isn’t afraid to hit someone.

This time, Washington stays in two-high defense against New York’s four-wide formation. So, Chinn lines up at free safety and is 11 yards off the ball pre-snap. That gives the Giants the look they want to run the ball against a light box on second and six to pick up the first down.

However, Chinn crashes downhill to get involved in the run fit and drops his pads to make a nice form tackle, setting up the third-down situation.

He’s pretty consistent with his tackling technique by getting low and wrapping up. That’s a big reason why he only had four misses and a 5.8 percent missed tackle rate as a run defender during the regular season (via PFF). The latter ranked 13th among safeties.

Here, the safety makes the play without making the play.

He sees the tight end motion across the formation and seems to know what play is coming, pointing toward the sideline for the outside run. So, Chinn rotates into the box and immediately crashes downhill once he sees the pin-and-pull concept from the offense.

That allowed him to beat the pulling left tackle to the spot and defeat the block with a rip move. As a result, the running back has to cut up the field and into the pursuing defensive tackle, who makes the tackle for a short gain.

This is a great example of the veteran’s football IQ and of him being an unselfish player, sacrificing himself for someone else to make the play.

The rep above is similar to the previous one, it just comes in coverage against a screen.

Chinn originally lines up as an edge defender but moves outside to cover the receiver motioning across the formation. Post-snap, he stays deep initially to make sure he’s not getting baited by a fake screen or that he doesn’t get beat deep since it’s first and 10, meaning the defense can afford to give up a short completion.

Once Chinn sees the left guard release toward the flat, he immediately triggers downhill to beat the guard’s block. On top of that, the defensive back makes a good open-field tackle, wrapping up the receiver’s leg, to get a TFL for a five-yard loss against the screen.

While Chinn has experience covering the slot, he isn’t someone who should be trusted man-to-man against wide receivers. But what he can do is help take away tight ends when tight ends split out wide, as the clip above shows.

Chinn does a good job of using his hands in coverage to help stay in-phase, especially against bigger pass-catchers. So, while he bites on the inside stem from the tight end here, Chinn getting hands on the tight end allows him to recover and stay within arm’s length of his man. To finish, the safety does a great job of undercutting the out route and playing the pass-catcher’s hands at the catch point to come up with a PBU.

At 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds, Chinn will be able to match up well with most tight ends around the league.

To be clear, Chinn is much better and more of a box safety than someone who can line up on the back end of the defense every down. But he does have the versatility to be used occasionally as a free safety in coverage for a few wrinkles in the playbook.

Here, Washington calls inverted Cover 2, where Chinn begins the rep about seven yards away from the line of scrimmage to help sell the one-high look to the offense or disguise the defense’s coverage. Post-snap, he bails to cover the deep half of the field while the free safety stays put to take away the middle of the field.

Chinn shows great eye discipline here, looking at the quarterback while using his peripheral vision to see what routes are coming. Once he recognizes the corner route from Mike Evans and sees Baker Mayfield rear back to throw, the safety breaks to the corner and has excellent timing to play Evans’ hands at the catchpoint and get another PBU.

Overall, the Raiders found a solid defensive back who can impact several areas of the game by signing Chinn in free agency.