Oakland Raiders: A few players to watch in preseason game vs. Rams

The Wide Receivers

The Raiders have an overabundance of pass catching bodies on the roster at present. They also have very few spots up for grabs. Which is making the battle for spots at the wide receiver position one of the most compelling in camp thus far.

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You can pretty well already go ahead and say with a high degree of confidence that Amari Cooper, Jordy Nelson, and Martavis Bryant will take up the top three spots on the depth chart. Though Gruden wasn’t happy with Bryant earlier on, he’s stepped it up a bit, and let’s face it, Gruden didn’t flip a third-round draft pick just to cut the guy.

So, with three spots taken, the next question is – how many receivers will Gruden keep on the roster?

You can probably count on five – though, it’s not outside the realm of possibility they keep six. For the purposes of this article, let’s assume they keep six receivers on the roster.

That leaves Ryan Switzer, Griff Whalen, Seth Roberts, Marcell Ateman, Johnny Holton, Keon Hatcher, Isaac Whitney, Saeed Blacknall, and Dwayne Harris vying for those last three (though, maybe only two) open roster spots.

That’s a lot of bodies for only two spots. Though, if they don’t make the active roster, some guys will also be battling for spots on the practice squad.

All of those remaining bodies have their pros, and their cons. Given that they’ll be down on the depth chart behind Cooper, Nelson, and Bryant, it’s going to be critical for them to show the can add value on special teams.

In that regard, guys like Switzer, Whalen, and Harris may have something of a leg up, given their experience returning kicks.

It’s a tough battle, and one of the more compelling for the Raiders this year. It will be interesting to see how these guys, with roster spots on the line, show out against the Rams.