Oakland Raiders: Analyzing recently acquired WR Anthony Ratliff-Williams

The Oakland Raiders recently signed rookie wide receiver Anthony Ratliff-Williams to the practice squad. Let’s go over what he could potentially bring the team.

The Oakland Raiders recently signed rookie undrafted free agent wide receiver from Anthony Ratliff-Williams to the practice squad following the promotion of Marcell Ateman to the active roster.

Ratliff-Williams was originally signed by the Tennessee Titans following the draft and apparently impressed early in OTA’s but was still eventually cut.

The North Carolina product finished his final year as a junior hauling in 42 receptions for 689 yards to go along with two touchdowns. That followed a similar sophomore season in which he caught 35 receptions for 630 yards, but with triple the amount of TD’s with six — eight if you include kick returns.

Those are not exactly flashy numbers, especially for college, which is probably the reason he went undrafted. But keep in mind that he suffered from poor quarterback play and the North Carolina offense is run-heavy, with three running backs getting over 80 carries during the 2018 season.

While his stats may have concerned some, his athletic profile is a plus as Ratliff-Williams ran an (unofficial) 4.46 40-yard-dash as well as 14 bench press reps and a 35-inch vertical jump.

Ratliff-Williams was listed at only 5-foot-11, but his NFL.com scouting report lists him at 6’1, and that seems more likely as he actually looks even bigger than that on the field and plays like it too.

Three of Ratliff-Williams biggest strengths are his ability to high point the ball, his body control, and physicality with the ball in his hands after the catch.

His tape versus Eastern Carolina is a good reference for these strengths, but also his weaknesses. At (1:16) you see his YAC ability on display, as well as the physicality with the ball in his hands — as previously mentioned — as he stiff-arms two defenders into the ground on the same play.

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Another example of his YAC ability is at (2:30), where he also makes a perfect catch extending his arms for the ball on a route that he could have just let come into his body which a lot of receivers do. The last example of this is at (3:28) with another violent stiff-arm to a defender.

Now, where his main weakness shows is on the play at (1:06). The incompletion comes as a result of letting the cornerback get in front of him which is something we have seen happen to Hunter Renfrow a lot due to his small stature and lack of strength.

That isn’t the case with Ratliff-Williams and instead happened due to a poorly run route which allowed the defender to make an easy break for the ball on the slant.

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If Ratliff-Williams would have made a better cut, he would have been on the inside and had the easy reception with the defender behind him.

You will notice in his tape that his route running is not the crispest. On top of that, there’s a noticeable absence of a natural feel for the position which leads to him struggling when it comes to the little aspects of playing the position.

That is because Ratliff-Williams was recruited to North Carolina as a quarterback and switched positions his freshman year, so he has been learning the position while on the job and only has two years of meaningful playing time as a receiver.

The fact that he entered North Carolina as a quarterback is part of the reason he was versatile for the Tar Heels, as he threw two touchdowns his sophomore year as a receiver on trick plays on only four attempts.