On Saturday, the Oakland Raiders officially kicked off day one of training camp. Derek Carr and Tyrell Williams were the talk of camp after day one concluded.
In the early stages of the offseason the Oakland Raiders made it apparent that their priority was to upgrade the skill positions. They utilized their large cap space efficiently during the offseason period, and by doing so they brought in wide receiver Tyrell Williams on a four-year $44.3 million dollar contract.
Derek Carr and his new playmaker both took the field together for day one of camp, and their connection during 7-on-7 action clicked quite nicely. Carr hit Williams deep continuously throughout the practice, showing his defense and the fans how dynamic the duo can really be.
After practice Williams answered some questions on his chemistry with Carr:
"“Yeah, I mean we got together in the offseason in between mini-camp and training camp so I feel like we’re good right now,” said Williams. “It’s starting to click. Obviously there’s still things we want to work on but for day one it feels good.”"
They still haven’t reached a large total of reps with one another, but their potential shines bright for what they can do in the long-term. In the past, when Carr played at his best in 2016, his aggressively nature throwing deep balls down the field is what made him so dangerous. With that said, Williams possesses a skillset that is designed to fly down field and high-point the football.
Carr spoke with the media after Saturday’s practice, where he answered questions on his connection with Williams and how they went about training this offseason:
"“One thing that I’ve learned over the years is creating time and creating development, throwing the ball even way earlier than I even think I should because that will make it more accurate for those guys going forward,” said Carr. “One thing that we did, we spent a lot of time in the offseason. More than I have with other guys in the past. These receivers, I’ll tell you what, they didn’t wait for me to text them. That was something that was pretty cool to me. They are showing up at my house. They are showing up at Bakersfield of all places. They’re, ‘Hey, where are you going to be at?’ I’m going to be in Bakersfield, you’re more than welcome to come and get to work. We get 10 guys there and do a two day mini-camp. Just stuff like that, it shows you the kind of people Coach and Mr. Mayock are bringing in. It shows you that they just love football.”"
Both Carr and Williams appear to be thrilled with the connection between the two, and then when you add Antonio Brown in there, the Raiders offense looks to be significantly more dynamic than it was just one year ago.