Oakland Raiders: A Search Party Is Needed For Missing Receiver

Oakland Raiders wide receiver Seth Roberts has made a name for himself in crunch time – and yet, three games into the season, he’s been virtually invisible.

Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr likely gets up in the morning, giddy about the plethora of weapons at his disposal. Amari Cooper, Michael Crabtree, Jared Cook, Clive Walford, Cordarrelle Patterson, Marshawn Lynch, Jalen Richard, and DeAndre Washington – it’s an embarrassment of riches enough to make any quarterback cackle with delight and give defensive coordinators night terrors.

Yes, it’s quite the arsenal of offensive firepower. Oh, wait – did we forget somebody? Oh, of course – we forgot Seth Roberts. But then, it seems like Oakland’s offense as a whole this season, has too.

Roberts sightings have been more rare than sightings of Bigfoot and it’s gotten to the point that many are putting his photos on the back of milk cartons.

The third-year pro, who’s made something of a name for himself for his knack of coming up with plays in the clutch for the Raiders – who can forget that game winning 41-yard touchdown in overtime against Tampa Bay last year?

Let’s also not forget that Roberts is something of a lucky charm for Oakland – the Raiders have gone 10-0 in games that he’s scored a touchdown.

With 70 receptions for 877 yards and 10 touchdowns over his first two seasons in Silver and Black, GM Reggie McKenzie thought enough of him to give Roberts a three-year, $12 million dollar contract extension this past offseason.

With the deal, and how important he’s been to Oakland’s offensive success the last couple of years, the thinking was that Roberts would continue being a key cog in the Raiders offensive machine.

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But through two games this season, Roberts had logged just 19 yards on one reception and a touchdown – an important score as it turned out, given that it helped Oakland hold off the Tennessee Titans in week one.

What’s most surprising about Roberts’ stats through the first two games though, is that he was targeted just twice. Two targets in two games.

For a key cog in Oakland’s offensive machine, with the ink barely dry on a $12 million dollar deal, Carr and the Raiders sure weren’t asking for much of a return on investment.

Last week against Washington though, Roberts found himself targeted five times – making four grabs for just 20 yards. Modest gains, but at least his targets went up. Of course, it’s very likely his targets went up out of necessity, given Cooper’s ineffectiveness and Crabtree’s injury.

For the year, Roberts and his now seven targets, are a distant fifth on the team. He’s still behind DeAndre Washington in targets, and until last week’s plethora of looks, he was behind Marshawn Lynch and Jalen Richard as well.

For Roberts, last week must have seemed like Christmas came early.

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Now, in all fairness, Roberts was never going to be “the guy” in Oakland’s offensive machine. He’s a role player – an important role player – but a role player, nonetheless. The great thing about Roberts though, is that he knows his role, is comfortable in it, and makes the absolute most of it that he can. And given his penchant for clutch catches – six of his eleven career touchdowns were go-ahead scores – he’s made quite a lot of it.

So the question remains – why has Roberts seemingly been phased out of the offense?

Yes, with only one football and so many viable targets, Roberts likely was going to see his targets diminish a bit. But as of now, his current pace puts him at about 32 targets for the season. That’s a shockingly drastic reduction for a player who saw 77 targets in 2016 – when he was third in number of looks behind Cooper and Crabtree.

What makes the lack of looks from Carr stand out even more is that this season, Roberts has been on the field for 134 offensive snaps – or about 77 percent of the offensive plays.

And it’s certainly not the sort of production you’d expect to see from a $4 million dollar a year receiver.

Yes, the Raiders have a bounty of offensive weapons. An embarrassment of riches. But this offense clicks best when it’s diversified. When Carr is slinging the ball all over the field and is actually utilizing all of his weapons – not just those named Cooper, Crabtree, and Cook.

The downsizing of Roberts’ role – to the extent it has been – in this offense is surprising. The hope is that last week’s bump in targets isn’t the exception, but rather, a trend in a positive direction for a receiver who’s been valuable to this offense over the last couple of seasons.

If it’s not a trend, but an anomaly, there are some questions that should probably be asked – like, “have you seen Seth Roberts?”