Las Vegas Raiders: 5 biggest surprises of 2022 thus far
By Sean Basile
Las Vegas Raiders: 5 biggest surprises of 2022 thus far
The dynamics of the receiving core
I think we all expected Davante Adams to be the clear-cut WR1 on this team and get the majority of the targets. To this point, he certainly has, as he leads the team with 63 targets, and the next-highest wideout on the roster only has 32.
With 198 total team targets on the season, Adams has gotten about 32% of those.
But the surprising thing to me has been the downgrade if that’s the right word, of target shares Darren Waller and Hunter Renfrow have been seeing. Both have had troubles with injury so far this year, but at the same time, they’ve also both been pretty bad when they’ve been on the field.
Waller is clearly not the same guy he was just 365 days ago and Renfrow has had bad moment after bad moment, most notably the two fumbles he had to help the Raiders lose to Arizona in Week 2. Mack Hollins of all people is second on the team with 32 targets and Josh Jacobs is right there with Waller (24 targets) and Renfrow (23 targets) with 22 of his own.
God willing, Mack Hollins, the former Philadelphia Eagle cast-off, has been Derek Carr’s second-most-reliable receiver this season in front of two guys that were heralded as Pro Bowl candidates this year in Waller and Renfrow.
I don’t think anybody expected this to happen.