With the addition of Davante Adams to join Hunter Renfrow with the Raiders, they instantly had one of the best wide receiver duos in football. The third wide receiver spot is up for grabs, but increasingly that’s not looking like a weakness, but a potential strength.
One receiver who has gotten some positive mention early in camp is Mack Hollins. Josh Jacobs lauded his work ethic and intelligence, calling him “an amazing dude” while Darren Waller who called him “probably one of the top five funniest guys I’ve ever met in my life.”
You can add Davante Adams to that list.
“You can put Mack Hollins in to run a stop post,” said Adams. “He’s a bigger guy, but he can go down there and take the top off as well.”
Hollins himself isn’t buying too much into the hype around him. He sees opportunities for several receivers on the squad to see snaps.
“As I’ve learned more in this offense, I’ve learned there’s more opportunity than just Hunter and Darren [Waller] and Tay,” said Hollins. “So, that’s what’s so great about going out there. We have such a good room. Our receiver room is really competitive, like nobody has an easy, I guess the third receiver role, or third or fourth, like nobody has that shooed in, so everyday we come out and compete and try to give our best and see who can earn it.”
Another receiver who has gotten some mention has been Tyron Johnson, nicknamed T-Billy by his teammates.
“T Billy, yeah. He’s a workhorse, man,” said Adams. “He’s been running a lot of deep routes and he’s not complaining about it. He’s doing everything he can to establish himself in this offense and show the coaches what he can do. He’s already proved a lot to me.”
What’s funny about this is neither Mack Hollins nor Tyron Johnson have been viewed up to this point as the most likely to line up on the outside opposite Adams. Prior to the start of camp, the leading competitors for that role seemed to be Demarcus Robinson and Keelan Cole.
And it may ultimately end up being Robinson or Cole being named the starter and getting the bulk of the snaps. But it’s clear that there are many suitors, and even those who don’t start will be contributors.
From the outset, this group looks like it has a lot of talent top to bottom with good competition and depth throughout.