During the 2023 season, the Raiders defense was middle of the league in sacks with 46 total, but relatively-unknown Malcolm Koonce was second on the team with 8.
Early Years
Koonce was drafted by the Raiders in the third round in 2021 draft. During his first two seasons with the team, he was only a rotational player and he never started a single game. Most of the snaps were on special teams.
2023 Season
Coming into the season, it looked like the Raiders had an incredible room of edge rushers and Koonce would barely see the field again for the third straight season. Maxx Crosby, Chandler Jones, and a rookie Tyree Wilson (7th overall pick) were expected to dominate. But two days before the start of the NFL season, Jones posted on Instagram that he no longer was interested in playing for the Raiders. A few weeks later he was released by the team following an arrest.
Week 1 started out with Crosby playing 98%, Wilson playing 50% and Koonce 27% but Koonce’s snaps would increase as the season progressed. By week 9, Koonce became the starting edge rusher opposite Crosby. Josh McDaniels had been fired as head coach and Koonce had the trust of the interim head coach and now official HC, Antonio Pierce. Playing most of the time lining up against left tackles, Koonce finished the season with 3 forced fumbles, 8 sacks, 9 tackles for loss and 17 QB hits! And he had two incredible performances against their divisional rivals, the Chargers and Chiefs. In these two games, he totaled a combined 5 sacks and 2 forced fumbles.
Malcolm Koonce Week 16 Highlights All-22 Film Las Vegas Raiders at Kansas City Chiefs NFL 2023
Koonce finished with 6 total tackles, 3 sacks, 4 TFL and 4 QB hits. #fantasyfootball #football #highlights #IDP #silverandblack #blackhole #max #mad #Crosby #pierce #RaiderNation pic.twitter.com/D0kuif5wS2
— @NFLStudy (@NFLStudy) December 28, 2023
2024 Outlook
The Raiders didn’t add an edge rusher during free agency or the draft, which shows the team’s confidence in Koonce or Tyree Wilson starting opposite of Crosby. Wilson struggled in his rookie season and even saw snaps on the interior once Antonio Pierce took over as the head coach. We will likely see a rotation between Koonce and Wilson but I wouldn’t be surprised if Koonce saw a larger percentage of snaps.
The team added the best available Defensive Tackle in free agency, Christian Wilkins, who is a really great player in both pass rush and run stop situations. When teams decide to double team Crosby or Wilkins, Koonce will have space to shine as he comes off the right side.
It should also be noted that Koonce is on his last year of his rookie contract, so he has an extra motivation to play well and earn that big payday next offseason.
Fantasy Outlook
Koonce is currently rostered in just 10% of leagues, according to Sleeper. He will be a really good player to have later on best ball rosters, a DL 3/4 to have on your dynasty rosters and use in favorable weekly matchups. In redraft leagues he may only valuable in deep leagues or due to injuries. But make sure you don’t sleep on Koonce!
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