Las Vegas Raiders 2020 recap: 4 things we learned in September

The Las Vegas Raiders closed out the month of September with a loss in New England, and here are three things we learned in the first month of the season.

As we close out the month of September, the Las Vegas Raiders have three games in the books. Coming out of two road games and a Monday Night matchup with a 2-1 record isn’t too shabby, and many Raiders fans would have certainly taken that when the season starter.

Of course, a tough loss against the New England Patriots leaves a collective bad taste in Raiders fans mouths, but there have been enough bright spots that fans should be optimistic about the prospect for a play-off push later in the season.

Lets take a look at some trends, stats, and facts through the first 3 weeks of 2020.

Raiders offense throwing to Tight Ends most, WRs least

This stat shouldn’t be too surprising. Its a well known fact, almost a meme at this point, that Jon Gruden loves tight ends. The tight end position is easily the deepest, and healthiest group on the roster. Darren Waller had his national coming out party on Monday Night Football against the Saints, going for 12 catches, 103 yards, and a score.

Waller is the main cog in the Raiders passing attack.

When you look at how the wide receiver position has been decimated by injuries, first Henry Ruggs III, and now Bryan Edwards, it is easy to see why Derek Carr leans so heavily on his tight ends. Carr simply doesn’t have the same level of trust with most of his wide-outs not named Hunter Renfrow.

And while Renfrow is an excellent weapon as a chain-moving option, he simply doesn’t present the same match-up nightmare like Waller or even Foster Moreau.

JJ Zachariason from Fan Duel posted his study of position group targets on Twitter and it showed that the Raiders offense has thrown to TEs on 34.74% of Carr’s attempts good for the first highest rate in the NFL. For some context, the only other team in the league to target their TEs over 30% is the Eagles.

Meanwhile the Las Vegas wide receivers are only receiving 38.95% of Carr’s pass attempts, good for lowest target rate in the NFL. No other team is below 40% target rate to wide receivers. Of course its early in the season and Carr’s trust in his revamped wide receiver group should continue to grow and push these percentages up, but in the meantime bench Hunter Renfrow in your fantasy league.