Without a doubt, the biggest storyline coming out of practice for the Raiders over the last two weeks has been rookie receiver Bryan Edwards. After falling to the middle of the third round of the 2020 NFL Draft, Edwards has already made a massive impression on his coaches and his teammates.
After the recent shoulder injury to starter Tyrell Williams, Edwards was expected to take his place in the starting lineup at practice. But with beat reporters not (technically) allowed to reveal who is starting and who isn’t, that information couldn’t be confirmed. Until now.
On the State of the Nation podcast, Tashan Reed of The Athletic revealed that Edwards worked with the starters during Wednesday’s practice and that head coach Jon Gruden isn’t afraid to start him in Week 1 if needed. Here is a recap of Reed’s thoughts on Edwards from the latest episode of the podcast:
“Today running with the one’s, Bryan Edwards was there. I don’t know if I can technically say that or not, but they had him out there. So I don’t think there’s any hesitancy to start him, I just think Gruden may not want people to know that yet or how good that they think he is. But I don’t think they’re going to not put him out there just for the sake of saying ‘ah, we don’t want to have a starting rookie wide receiver duo.”
As it stands right now, the Raiders could open Week 1 of the regular season with two rookie starters at wide receiver in Henry Ruggs III and Bryan Edwards. If that is the case, you can still fully expect a ton of Hunter Renfrow in the slot and players like Nelson Agholor and Zay Jones to rotate in heavily.
However, the big takeaway here is that the Raiders love Edwards and believe he’s ready to play a role in the offense. Even if he doesn’t open the season as the starter against the Carolina Panthers, look for Edwards to have a big role in the offense this season.
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