Overall Grade and Recap
The Raiders passing offense was one of the more prolific groups in the NFL as the team finished ninth in the league in receiving yards with 4,383, and much of that credit has to of course go to the receiving group. Tight end Darren Waller was the leading receiver on the team, but the receiver group accounted for more than half of the team total with 2,351 yards between five players.
There were no 1,000-yard receivers on the team, but Agholor could have achieved that mark had he been a starter from Week 1 onwards. Aside from the surprising contributions of Agholor, the Raiders got a consistent output from Renfrow but very little from the highly touted duo of rookie receivers.
This leads us to the overall grade for the position. Agholor essentially signed on a minimum deal and was among the league leaders in yards per reception, so he blew past any expectations we had of him in the offseason. Renfrow was his usual consistent self and provided the statistical output we expected of a player with his role in the offense.
The rookie receivers both fell way short of expectations based on their draft positions and starting roles coming into the season, but both showed promise in their own way. So if you are keeping track, that’s one exceeds expectations, one met expectations, and two fell short of expectations.
What was expected to be a strength of the team became a middle of the pack unit that would have been in serious trouble without the contributions of Nelson Agholor.
There is much room for improvement in 2020 and this will be a position of focus for the Raiders staff, as they will need to replace Agholor’s numbers if he chooses to sign elsewhere. They may decide that his role can be filled by the Ruggs and Edwards, but that remains to be seen with so much time left in the offseason.
Help may be on the way through free agency or the draft but it is clear that the Raiders need more from this position group to continue their climb back to the playoffs.