The Las Vegas Raiders have bodies at wide receiver. They have reps, snaps, names on a depth chart. What they don’t really have—at least not yet—is that outside threat you can point to and say, “that’s the guy you have to account for every single play.”
And yes, Brock Bowers is already the closest thing to a WR1 in spirit and usage. That’s fine. He bends coverage, eats targets, changes math. But it still helps when somebody on the outside forces a defense to actually widen the field instead of collapsing it inward.
Right now, that outside group is more projection than production.
The Biggest Roster Hole
Aaron Schatz of ESPN sizes up the biggest roster holes for each NFL team going into the new season in a Thursday, May 7 feature.
For the Raiders, he picks outside wide receiver.
“The Raiders have wide receivers, but no one is established as a No. 1 option,” he says. “(Yes, their No. 1 receiver is tight end Brock Bowers, but it is still good to have somebody drawing attention outside.) Tre Tucker is going into his fourth season and had 57 catches for 696 yards and five touchdowns last season, but he also had a score of just 29 out of 100 in the ESPN receiver scores.”
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He adds: “Jack Bech (20 catches for 224 yards) and Dont’e Thornton Jr. (10 catches for 135 yards) underwhelmed in their rookie seasons. Dareke Young had just four receptions in four seasons with Seattle before signing with Las Vegas this offseason, and rookie Malik Benson is a sixth-round pick.”
Tre Tucker is the closest thing to a proven piece, heading into his fourth season after putting up 57 catches for 696 yards and five touchdowns last year. Serviceable line. Not a fear factor. The ESPN receiver grading gave him a 29 out of 100, which tells you the league still sees him as something closer to “role player” than “problem.”
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Behind him, it gets quieter. Jack Bech finished his rookie year with 20 catches for 224 yards. Dont’e Thornton Jr. had 10 catches for 135 yards. That’s not a rotation yet—that’s still auditions.
Then there’s Dareke Young, who had just four receptions in four seasons with Seattle before arriving in Las Vegas. And sixth-round rookie Malik Benson, who’s still in the “show me” stage of his career like most late-round receivers tend to be.
So the Raiders’ issue isn’t confusion—it’s establishment. Nobody outside has forced defenses to shift coverage rules yet. Everything is still optional for opponents. That’s dangerous in the wrong way.
Because in this league, you can survive without stars at wide receiver. You can even survive without depth sometimes. What you can’t survive for long is uncertainty at the boundaries of your offense—when the sideline stops being a threat and starts becoming a suggestion.