Five Oakland Raiders Facing a Make Or Break Season
By Kevin Saito
Nov 30, 2014; St. Louis, MO, USA; Oakland Raiders receiver Andre Holmes (18) is upended by St. Louis Rams cornerback E.J. Gaines (33) at Edward Jones Dome. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Andre Holmes is something of an enigma. He’s got the size (6’5”, 208 lbs.), and speed you’d want in your typical number one receiver. The thing he’s lacking though – or at least he hasn’t shown off yet – are the skills.
Holmes has been something of a disappointment since the Raiders acquired him in 2013. That season, he caught 25 balls on 52 targets for 431 yards and one touchdown. Last season, he snagged 47 passes on 99 targets for 693 yards and four scores.
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While yes, he did lead the team in receiving yards, it was a fairly low bar to clear. Oakland seems to have hope that he can develop into a solid receiver, but they’re obviously not sold on him. His sometimes maddening inconsistency – not to mention poor reception rate – led the Raiders to make him a pittance of an deal by putting the original round tender on him – essentially offering him a one year deal for $1.542 million.
One gets the sense that despite giving him the tender, it was more because the Raiders need warm bodies in their receivers room, but wouldn’t have been terribly torn up had somebody made him an offer.
This is the year that Holmes is going to need to really step up his game if he wants to remain in Silver and Black – or if he wants to parlay his efforts into a lucrative contract elsewhere. He’s going to need to run cleaner routes, and above all else, he’s going to need to figure out how to hang on to the ball.
If he has a good season, perhaps the Raiders will make him a sweet deal. If not, he may need to peddle his services around the league and likely not receive much of a contract.
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