Cornerback · Las Vegas Raiders

Hezekiah Masses

No. 35 · Rookie

A fifth-round rookie is already running with the first team in Las Vegas

Fifth-round picks are supposed to be patient. They are supposed to watch, learn, and wait their turn. Hezekiah Masses is not waiting.

Masses came into the Las Vegas Raiders' offseason as a rookie drafted late enough that most outside the building would not have noticed. Fifth round means you are in the building on a bet — the coaches believe in something they saw, and now you have to show it back to them every day.

He is showing it. Through the team's offseason sessions, Masses has been taking first-team defensive snaps, which is not where late-round rookies typically find themselves this early. The coaching staff has taken notice of his instincts for the ball — the kind of feel for where a play is going before it gets there that you either have or you spend a career trying to learn.

For a Raiders defense looking for new contributors, a rookie who earns that trust in the offseason is a real development. Masses has not played a regular-season snap yet, but the people who watch him every day have already made a decision about what he might be.

The question now is whether the regular season confirms what the coaches already seem to believe.

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