Raiders Are Trying To Create More Opportunities For Key Receiver

The Las Vegas Raiders have a receiver on the rise, and they’re trying to create more opportunities for Tre Tucker. Tucker has had 200 yards receiving and three touchdowns in the last three games, per Sam Warren of The Athletic, so he’s been showing signs of becoming the No 1 receiver the Raiders badly need. 

Quarterback Kirk Cousins talked about getting Tucker those opportunities, and he thinks it’s about not relying exclusively on Tucker’s speed. It’s easy to pigeonhole Tucker and have “the slower guys do the slower things,” to use Cousins’ way of expressing it, and the quarterback added that “the traits are always there” when it comes to making that change. 

But Tucker has been used as a vertical threat because of his blazing speed, Warren noted, with 27.3 percent of his routes being go routes, according to TruMedia. That’s the highest percentage for any receiver during his firt three seasons, the writer added, but that percentage is down to 19.5 this year. 

Tucker proved that last Sunday against the Rams, as he took a flat route coming out of the backfield for 41 yards and turned a corner route into a 37-yard touchdown. Warren used those as examples of Tucker’s versatility, and he also noted that there are opportunities for receiver Jalen Nailor that haven’t been converted. 

Specifically, Cousins said he sees Nailor separating on tape, although for the casual observer it takes a deep dive to catch this sort of thing. The quarterback added that Tucker is beating his man, and he sees it as his job to get Nailor the ball. 

There are two problems with this. The first is that coach Klint Kubiak is running a tight-end based offense with a zone run scheme, so he’s leaning into what he perceives to be the Raiders’ strengths. 

The second is that the run game isn’t happening. The Raiders are at or near the bottom of the league in all the metrics associated with this, so opponents are simply stacking the box, knowing Cousins has to get the ball out quickly. 

That leads into a third problem, which is that the line can’t protect Cousins, either. He’s taking some vicious hits, and things get even tougher when the Raiders have to play from behind the way they did against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. 

The Raiders are hoping that playing an easier opponent will help when they take on the New York Jets on Sunday,  but we need to see it on the field before we can start to believe in Las Vegas again.