Las Vegas Raiders at Denver Broncos: 3 bold predictions in Week 17
By Nick Bailey
Darren Waller Breaks Tim Brown’s Receiving Record
One of the players that cannot be blamed for this lost season is first-time Pro-Bowler and should be first-time All-Pro tight end, Darren Waller. He has been everything and more Jon Gruden and the Raiders could have hoped for when they plucked him off the Baltimore practice squad a couple of years ago.
He is on the shortlist of who is the best tight end in the league right now, and the only two other players that can try to make that claim are Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and Niners tight end George Kittle. Right now, I would put him as the second-best tight end in the league behind Kelce.
Waller has 98 receptions for 1,079 yards and eight touchdowns this season, so he only needs six receptions to tie Tim Brown’s single-season reception record, and seven to break it. It might not even take three quarters for him to break this weekend, since he is Derek Carr’s go-to guy, and for good reason.
Gruden said he didn’t think Brown’s Raiders receptions record would ever be broken. Tim Brown said he knew it would be, but not by a tight end. He actually thought it would be former receiver Amari Cooper, and oh how wrong he was on that one.
In a second-half full of darkness for the Raiders and fans alike, Waller has been one of the lone bright lights of the season and there’s not a more deserving person than him.