The wide receivers for the Raiders, along with most of the offense, completely back tracked from the 2016 season. Here is a recap of the wideouts from 2017.
To say the 2017 regular season for the Oakland Raiders was a disappointment would be an understatement. The team was slated to make a playoff run in contention for the super bowl, but the team took a complete U-turn. The offense was in the drivers seat for that U-turn and the wide receivers are one of many to blame.
All the hype surrounding Amari Coopers muscle gain in the off-season quickly flamed out after a quarter into the season. The purpose for his muscle gain was so that he wouldn’t be dominated at the line of scrimmage like he had in the past from press coverage. However, beating press coverage doesn’t matter if you can’t catch the ball.
Austin Gayle from Pro Football Focus tweeted this out in January.
Among the 45 WRs with 82+ targets in 2017, #Raiders WRs Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree ranked 45th and 35th in drop rate, respectively. The duo dropped 16 passes on 122 catchable targets, collectively.
— Austin Gayle (@austingayle_) January 2, 2018
The same goes for teammate Michael Crabtree. Both players issues in seasons prior were drops, especially Crabtree. In 2016 he had a drop rate of 12.75, per Pro Football Focus. He did improve from 2016, but his drops were still an issue. When it comes to Seth Roberts, there isn’t really anything positive to say other than he improved on his drop rate as well. He went from a 19.15 drop rate in 2016 to a 8.51, per Pro Football Focus.
Watching Roberts run a route isn’t anything special. While the entire offense was plagued by having an inept offensive coordinator in Todd Downing, it doesn’t excuse the ugly routes ran.
More from Gayle:
Among the 84 WRs with 10+ contested targets in 2017, #Raiders WR Michael Crabtree ranks 40th in catch percentage (44.83).
— Austin Gayle (@austingayle_) January 2, 2018
Fellow OAK WRs Seth Roberts (21.43%) and Amari Cooper (14.29%) ranked 78th and 82nd, respectively.
All the wide receivers struggled to create separation. When quarterback Derek Carr would have time in the pocket to scan the field, he was stuck some of the time. There wasn’t anybody open. Which is why we saw Carr throw to his receivers in tight coverage so many times. No body could shake their defender and when they did it felt like a toss up if they’d catch it or not.
Even when Carr would roll out to get a better look the receivers struggled to get a feel for where the open spots were. Usually when a quarterback rolls out the pocket after sitting in it to read the field the defense’s coverage breaks down, thus the quarterback can hit an open receiver. But the Raiders receiving corp was so inept that they couldn’t even manage that. At that point in a play, it’s just backyard football. Carr wasn’t spot on like he could be, but receivers didn’t do him any favors either.
The narrative was almost the same in 2016. Only in 2016 the problems were mainly the dropped passes. That just shows how much the 2017 season really went for the Raiders. It was an all around collapse which is why it’s impossible to blame one person or unit.
With the new coaching staff, implemented by head coach Jon Gruden, the offense should improve exponentially. When it comes to the wide receivers the pressure will be on newly appointed coach Edgar Bennett. The former offensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers is an instant upgrade from previous wide receivers coach Rob Moore. He’ll be able to teach the receivers proper spacing when coverage breaks down and be able to advise Gruden on their strengths to properly utilize them in the offense.
Next: Raiders free agency: Allen Robinson to Oakland?
During the tenure of former head coach Jack Del Rio, the Raiders suffered from incompetent coaching. Now that the team has an intelligent coaching staff to put them in the right position, the improvements should be visible early. The wide receivers will benefit from it, but it is on them to run the routes and catch the ball.