3 Raiders Players Who Must Bounce Back Next Season

The 2021 campaign was a good one for many players on the Las Vegas Raiders roster.

After all, the team managed to make the playoffs despite a midseason coaching change, Henry Ruggs III's cutting from the team and an array of circumstances that could have sunk their season. Yet they made the playoffs in a highly competitive AFC.

New head coach Josh McDaniels isn't walking into a franchise with bare cupboards. But that doesn't mean everyone played to their ability, with multiple players failing to live up to expectations.

Whether it was because of injury, declining performance or a lack of opportunity, these three players did not produce what was expected of them in 2021.

However, they should be back on the roster again in 2022 and will need to step up if the Raiders are to realize their potential in the McDaniels era.

The Raiders appeared to be a big winner of free agency in 2020 when they inked Cory Littleton to a three-year deal. The linebacker was coming off a stellar season with the Los Angeles Rams in which he had 134 total tackles, 3.5 sacks and nine passes defended.

Unfortunately, Vegas hasn't seen anything close to that player in two seasons with the team.

Littleton was abysmal in the Silver and Black this season. He played five defensive snaps or fewer in each of the Raiders' last four regular-season games and carried a PFF grade of 47.8. Perhaps most frustrating has been a lack of physicality from the linebacker. He missed 17.2 percent of his tackles in 2020 and 7.5 percent in 2021.

Simply cutting their losses isn't an option for the Raiders thanks to his lucrative contract. He's already going to be costing the team with void years on his contract all the way through 2025. They would only save a little more than $1 million by cutting him now.

Littleton was at his best with the Rams toward the end of his contract. Perhaps the change in coaching staff and the final year of his contract will be motivation for him to finally contribute in Vegas.

Unlike Littleton, Darren Waller's disappointing 2021 campaign has little to do with his on-field performance. The tight end simply couldn't stay healthy this season.

Waller missed five games to knee and back injuries and a positive COVID-19 test. When he came back, there were clearly some bugs to work out in getting back into the swing of things. He caught just two of his nine targets for 22 yards in the regular-season finale against the Los Angeles Chargers.

All things considered, the star tight end saw a downturn in his production. On a per-game basis, he averaged 1.7 fewer receptions and 14.3 fewer yards with a decline in touchdowns as well. He only scored twice after having nine touchdowns the previous year.

Waller, who has been open about his history with addiction, was forthcoming about his struggles while out of the lineup.

"It's tough, honestly, because I'm a human being at the end of the day, and I'm still trying to shed my old thinking patterns," he said, per Paul Gutierrez of ESPN. "So when I'm not out there [playing], I can think these thoughts of, 'The team is balling without me being in there. Am I useless?' These irrational thoughts."

If Waller is healthy in 2022, he hopefully returns to his dominant 2020 form.

Before there was Cory Littleton, there was Carl Nassib.

Much like the well-compensated, disappointing linebacker, Nassib was brought into the fold on a fairly lucrative free-agent contract after success in a previous stop.

Nassib racked up 12.5 sacks over two seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Raiders signed him to a three-year $25 million contract in hopes that he could be a rotational pass-rusher who could build on that success.

Two years into the deal, he has not. Nassib has just four sacks and played 30 percent or less of the defensive snaps in five of the final six games on the season.

With Yannick Ngakoue and Maxx Crosby on the roster, the Raiders don't need a ton out of Nassib. However, he's due to make $9.7 million next season and carries a dead-cap charge of $6.6 million if he's cut.

The team could still decide the saving is worth it. They could even make Nassib a post-June 1 cut and spread out the remaining cap charge over the next two seasons.

The best-case scenario still remains Nassib getting a fresh start with the new coaching staff and putting together a productive season.

Advanced stats per Pro Football Reference unless otherwise noted. Salary information via Spotrac.