LA Chargers: 3 new Las Vegas Raiders players to worry about

3. Casey Hayward

I know, not the name you expected to see here. The LA Chargers released Casey Hayward to free up cap space after what was a terrible 2020 season for the former Pro Bowl cornerback and with him being on the wrong side of 30, it appears that he will never regain his form.

Hayward is not going to regain his prime form, that I can say with certainty. However, it would not be totally surprising if Hayward has a much better season in 2021 than he did in 2020. Hayward dealt with a few lingering issues in 2020 and sometimes all it takes is a change of scenery to ignite a player.

We have seen this happen before with other veteran corners. Look at how bad Marcus Peters was in Los Angeles and how good he played after he was sent to Baltimore. Hayward is not going to have that kind of turnaround, again, because of his age, but a turnaround is possible.

He has a familiar defensive coordinator in Gus Bradley and an opportunity to get consistent snaps as an outside corner. Hayward showed flashes of being the same guy last season and who knows, maybe the lingering issues were more impactful than we thought.

Most importantly, Hayward is going to be playing with a huge chip on his shoulder against the LA Chargers. Sure, the Chargers are the team that Hayward elevated his game with but there is always a little bit extra juice when you are playing the team that just released you.

Hayward could only have two great games all season and I would bet that they would come against the LA Chargers because of that added motivation.