Of all the difficulties the Raiders faced this season, the Henry Ruggs III DUI crash was by far the worst. The crash resulted in the death of a woman and her dog and landed Ruggs in jail on charges that could put him away for a very long time.
First and foremost, that took its toll on the Raiders team emotionally. It dwarfed the Jon Gruden resignation in that regard. And from an on-field standpoint, the Raiders actually seemed to play better following Gruden’s exit. But the loss of Ruggs was much harder to overcome.
It was clear quickly that the Raiders’ offense was not the same without their number one receiver. And they summarily lost three in a row.
They would pull out of their tailspin with a win a big overtime win in Dallas. But the win would come at a cost – Darren Waller.
The Pro Bowl tight end left with knee and back injuries and would not return for five weeks.
In the midst of the loss of their deep threat in Ruggs and their best receiver in Waller, several other Raiders receivers stepped up. The new outside starters were Zay Jones and Bryan Edwards, while slot receiver Hunter Renfrow saw his targets go way up.
“It was a really good test for us as a unit,” said Edwards. “We had to pick up the slack of the guys that we were missing and I feel like it was a constant rotation with all the adversity we were facing. But I feel like we did the best with what we had and I feel like everybody in the room was forced to grow, especially me and especially Hunter and you just see the kind of results that came from it. It was one heck of a year to sum it up.”
Renfrow in particular landed in the Raiders record books. His 103 catches finished third in Raiders franchise history and second among wide receivers, just one behind Tim Brown’s record (104). He also surpassed 1000 yards (1038) and added nine touchdowns. Renfrow credits his quarterback for his and his fellow receivers’ performances.
“I can’t say enough good things about Derek [Carr],” said Renfrow. “How it didn’t matter who was out there. And really he’s done that his whole career. He’s a special player, and no matter who’s out there, he’s going to find them the ball and get us opportunities. And so as a receiver group, we just got more and more confident as the year went along.”
Edwards tripled his rookie totals in all areas. He went from 11 catches for 193 yards and one touchdown as a rookie to 34 catches for 571 yards and three touchdowns this season. None stood out for Edwards more than the win over the Browns.
“Playing in Cleveland and getting that touchdown I felt like that was kind of for me seeing all my hard work coming to fruition and like that moment where you kind of see the light and you’re like ‘man, I’m coming along’,” said Edwards who had the Raiders’ only touchdown in the team’s 16-14 win.
That game started the team’s late-season four-game win streak. And no receiver stepped up more than Zay Jones in those four games, putting up 25 catches for 254 yards. He finished fourth on the team in receptions (47) and yards (546). He then went on to catch five more passes for 62 yards and a touchdown in the playoff loss to the Bengals.
Just making it to the playoffs at all was a huge accomplishment. The way they stepped up and the way Derek Carr adjusted to keep the team afloat without their best receivers was admirable.
“I think it just shows the resilience of this team and the guys, the foundation it’s built on,” Edwards continued. “Throughout the season things just kept coming up and when it went down we kept responding and when it went up we kept responding. And we just tried to do the best we could to win games and we made a playoff run and we did some things that haven’t done here in a long time. So we have a lot to be proud of.”
Edwards and Renfrow will certainly be all the better for having fought through this so early in their careers. It won’t keep the Raiders from the need to bring in a deep threat to replace Ruggs, but that’s to be expected.
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