Prioritizing The Oakland Raiders’ Free Agency Wish List By Need
By Kevin Saito
The Raiders could use an upgrade in the slot – that seems to be the general consensus. Seth Roberts has been good, but he hasn’t been great. He has made some spectacular plays, but he’s also had some mind-numbingly terrible drops at critical times.
Though most of Oakland’s pass catchers had some issues with drops (Michael Crabtree pitched in nine of his own), Roberts dropped five passes in 2016 – on just 77 total targets, giving him a 6.5 percent drop rate. Not exactly great numbers.
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DeSean Jackson would represent a significant upgrade to a Raiders receivers group that’s already pretty good. Jackson hauled in more than 1,000 yards on 56 catches last season, and had four scores on the year.
Adding somebody of his caliber would not only represent an upgrade, it would give Oakland some real flexibility with how they used their receivers group. For instance, having somebody like Jackson on the roster would allow OC Todd Downing to shift Amari Cooper inside on certain plays, presenting nightmare mismatches for a defense. With Cooper’s speed and elusiveness, he would eat up the middle of the field while Crabtree and Jackson had a field day on the outside.
But this is going to come down to a numbers game. Not only is adding a slot receiver not particularly high on the to-do list, adding somebody like Jackson would cost way too much. Coming off a contract that paid him about $8 million annually, Jackson will likely be looking for one last big payday before retiring.
Which should rule Oakland out of the chase. They simply don’t have the cash and have more pressing needs at the moment.
But the idea of a trio like Cooper, Crabtree, and Jackson for Derek Carr to throw to would make fans salivate and would likely make opponents wet themselves.