Raiders CB Rashaan Melvin ‘frustrated’, pledges not to ‘change his style’

None of us here are pleased with the situation the Raiders are in right now, and that goes for the players as well. Earlier today, Raiders corner Rashaan Melvin tweeted the following:

A few hours later, he followed up with this Tweet:

Melvin’s frustration surely lies not only with the team’s performance, but with his playing time as well. He only played seven defensive snaps against Seattle, and fellow corner Gareon Conley played zero. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Daryl Worley got almost all the corner snaps, and we saw how well that worked. Perhaps this was the coaching staff trying to mix things up and see if a new combination would work, but both Melvin and Conley have been pretty good this season and it’s odd that they wouldn’t figure more into the game plan.

What’s less apparent here is what Melvin means by not changing his style, and returning to ‘what got him here’. Whatever that was, it made the Raiders step up and pay him a ton of money this offseason as a free agent, so we’d all love to see it if he has some sort of secret kung fu he hasn’t shown off as a Raider to this point.

This can go one of two ways. There’s little doubt that many in the Raider locker room are similarly frustrated. The Raiders can either focus and channel this into better play, or they can fracture with bad attitudes, infighting and squabbling and Jon Gruden will completely lose the locker room. Let’s hope for all of our sakes that it’s the former.