The Las Vegas Raiders took three wide receivers in April's draft, and while one is no longer with the team, the other two both seemed to have a path to a notable role. Through four games, though, the balance of playing time clearly went toward one of them.
Fourth-rounder Dont'e Thornton Jr. totaled five catches for 94 yards on 14 targets through those first four games. He also played 165 offensive snaps, which is a 66 percent snap share, and he started three of those aforementioned contests.
Second-rounder Jack Bech, however, had just two catches for 33 yards over the first four games. He had been making the most of his opportunities, however, as he had suited up for just 30 offensive snaps, a 12 percent snap share.
Playing time shift toward Jack Bech came to fruition against the Colts
After Bech played just five offensive snaps in the Week 4 loss to the Chicago Bears, Raiders head coach Pete Carroll made it clear that he wanted that to change.
"We just need to get him out there more," Carroll said about Bech. "He’s ready for it."
With Carroll's comments in mind, Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, on the Vegas Nation First and 10 Podcast, called Bech a player to watch looking toward Sunday's game against the Indianapolis Colts.
"A guy that I would keep an eye on, real quick, is Jack Bech. I think Pete Carroll made it pretty clear that he wants Jack Bech more in the rotation,” Bonsignore said.
With the Raiders down their top two tight ends against the Colts, Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer, there was a path for Bech to start having a bigger role, whether that be out wide, in the slot or even as an inline tight end.
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Nothing went right for the Raiders in their 40-6 loss to the Colts on Sunday, but what the day looked like for Bech was going to be of interest no matter what. He ended up with three catches for 27 yards on five targets, all of which were career-bests.
But more importantly, according to Pro Football Focus, he played 36 offensive snaps while Thornton, who had zero catches on two targets, played just 32 snaps. PFF fantasy analyst Nathan Jahnke had some deeper insight into Bech's playing time boost.
"This week, Thornton and Bech were used interchangeably as the third receiver in three-receiver sets. Both receivers played multiple snaps on nearly every drive, and there was no clear tendency by down," Jahnke wrote. "It wasn’t until late in the game that Bech pulled slightly ahead of Thornton in terms of total snaps. Bech caught three passes for 27 yards while Thornton was held without a catch. Bech was typically the X receiver when he was on the field, like Thornton, but the Raiders moved receivers around more than usual."
At first glance, with Jahnke's note about it taking until late in the game for him to play more snaps than Thornton in mind, it might be easy to brush off Bech's playing time surge as the product of a blowout.
But his first target and catch in the game came on Las Vegas' first drive, so the plan to get him on the field more wasted no time getting going. Raiders fans have begged for the team to get Bech more involved, even at the expense of Thornton, and it finally came to fruition.
Thornton, frankly, squandered his massive opportunity by not producing much in the first four games. Bech obviously didn't light up the stat sheet with his first real opportunity to play, but he did plenty to make himself a more prominent part of the offense going forward.