With Week 2 officially in the books, we now have multiple data points to help us figure out what to expect from this new look Raiders offense under Luke Getsy.
It’s pretty clear at this point that the group of pass catchers are the strength of the unit, and that’s to be expected when you look at the resources the team has put into it.
The Raiders rank third in the NFL in cap space dedicated to wide receivers and have now spent top 35 picks on tight ends in back to back drafts. Acquiring all that talent is great, but the way that talent is used can be just as important.
The first and most important player to talk about is, of course, Davante Adams.
Sometimes when teams have a truly elite receiver like Adams, they’ll throw them on the outside every play and ask them to win against whatever coverage they’re faced with. But in today’s NFL, more and more teams have started moving their best players around the formation. Not only does this allow you to take advantage of favorable matchups, it also makes life easier for your quarterback by giving him larger windows to throw into.
So far this year, Adams has taken 27% of his snaps from the slot. That’s still a touch lower than his first year with the team but a big improvement from 16.9% last year.
Those alignment numbers are part of the reason Adams’s yardage total dropped by almost 400 yards from 2022 to 2023 despite seeing 3 more targets.
The uptick in slot snaps this year is already paying off. Adams had 9 catches for 110 yards in week 2. He only hit those totals twice all of last season.
Next we have the highly touted 1st round pick Brock Bowers.
Having a player like Bowers can do so many things for an offense, but tight ends are so often misused because they aren’t a great fit for their offense. This can lead to underwhelming production and prevent them from reaching their ceiling.
The early signs suggest that this will not be the case here. Bowers has been on the field for 62 pass plays this season and has run a route on 59 of them (95%).
Of the 37 tight ends who have played at least 25 passing snaps, only 2 have a higher route participation rate than Bowers. He’s certainly a capable blocker, but you don’t draft a tight end in the top 15 for their pass blocking.
Luke Getsy is also doing a good job moving the Georgia product around the formation. Bowers has taken 45 snaps from the slot, 30 at inline tight end, eight out wide, and one from the backfield. This is a great balance that allows them to use him in a variety of ways without turning him into a glorified decoy.
The only nitpick I have with Bowers’s usage is that he’s only run the fourth most routes on the team. I suspect this will increase as the season rolls on, but it’s worth keeping an eye on.
Now that we’ve covered the two thoroughbreds, let’s talk about some of the other receivers and tight ends.
As expected, Jakobi Meyers and Tre Tucker have been far and away WR2 and WR3. Both players took over 60% of their snaps from the outside in 2023, but Hunter Renfrow’s departure opened up space in the slot. They’ve opted to keep Tucker and his elite speed on the outside, moving Meyers to play a majority in the slot.
For Meyers, this makes sense considering it’s what he did for his entire career in New England. At the same time, it’s a bit surprising because Meyers performed well in 2023, and Tucker spent a whopping 96.5% of the time in the slot during his final season at Cincinnati. Speed is likely the main reason for this decision, and it’s hard to fault them for that.
The result of this, however, is Tucker has struggled to get involved early and spends most of his time clearing out space for other playmakers — an important, but often thankless job.
It would be nice to see more of Tucker getting downfield on full speed motion plays, similar to what the Dolphins do with their speedy receivers. They’ve done some of that stuff with Meyers, but Tucker’s speed could really be leveraged in those situations. Tucker’s average depth of target was 19.2 yards last, but he has yet to see a target more than 20 yards downfield in 2024.
Finally, there’s Michael Mayer. A highly drafted player who has sort of been cast aside with the arrival of Bowers.
Mayer has good hands, he’s solid in contested situations and is a capable route runner. He’s just not quite as dynamic as some of the top receiving tight ends around the league.
At the same time, he hasn’t fared particularly well as a blocker in his NFL career so far. Mayer was 72nd out of 91 qualified tight ends in PFF run blocking grade in 2023. He’s fallen more into that type of role in 2024, so hopefully we see improvement as he can focus more on that part of his game.
Overall, I like what Luke Getsy has done with his pass catchers so far in 2024. We’re seeing much more diversity with their alignment compared to 2023. The passing game may not look like it did against Baltimore every week, but expect it to continue looking better than last year.