Cory Littleton: Ready To Explode For the Las Vegas Raiders

Teams across the league faced many challenges leading into the 2020 NFL season.

Coronavirus protocols, the absence of offseason programs, not having the ability to build chemistry and cohesiveness with the team, challenges that hurt everyone coming into a new team.

Coming off back-to-back seasons with the Rams as a top-five linebacker, the Raiders signed the highly talented free-agent Cory Littleton a year ago. Their goal was simple, to help solidify a weak linebacker core.

"As a really young team, we came up against a lot of challenges, no different than a lot of other teams," said Littleton after a young Raiders team was unable to overcome most of the challenges last season.

After a year of playing together, the Silver and Black are hoping to get an opportunity to enter training camps and have another chance to get to know each other.

"Communication is a key thing, and also fundamentals and little simple rules and techniques. Everybody just has to be on the same page and be able to do those little things and unfortunately we weren't able to," added Littleton on being unable to communicate and hurt the team from being on the same page.

When asked, Littleton agreed; he wasn't on the same page with the rest of his teammates early. As the season progressed, he felt more comfortable stepping up in the role he was expected to fill.

"I don't know if I can actually pinpoint an exact date and time, but I can say as the season progressed, I felt more and more comfortable through the year. I felt like a chicken with its head cut off," said a reflective Littleton.

The Raiders are using this offseason to find ways to improve on defense. Bringing a new defensive coordinator to the team should help the Raiders' defense improve. Gus Bradley, widely heralded for his defensive savvy, is now entrusted with fixing Jon Gruden's defense.

Based on his standards, Littleton had a miserable season. Eagerly knowing he had to take it upon himself first before going out to the team to fix things.

Tackling was a big issue. Littleton noted that he missed many tackles he should have made. That leads back to doing the basic things right and working on the fundamentals of the game.

Having everyone feel comfortable out on the field, trusting each other is vital. We saw last year how much it could hurt a team down the stretch.

"I believe we have all the potential that we really need to be able to win a championship. Finding the right cohesiveness to get us to be able to play all on the same page and actually get stuff done. Once that happens, we should be able to do it," said Littleton.

Littleton plans on being a Raider for the rest of his career. Las Vegas is where he intends to stay, so getting his game back up to his standards is critical. Improving the defense also means taking on a leadership role to ensure the team gets better next season.