When the Raiders dumped Michael Crabtree, the thinking was that Amari Cooper might step into the role of Derek Carr’s most reliable target. And if not Cooper, Jordy Nelson made sense to be the next best option, right?
Wrong.
After four games, Carr seems to have already found a new favorite target in tight end Jared Cook, who leads the team with 35 targets. Cooper is second on the team in targets (30) and Nelson (24) is just ahead of Jalen Richard (23). Cook leads the Raiders with 370 receiving yards and that puts him on pace for 1,480 on the season (his career best is 759 receiving yards with Tennessee in 2011). For what it’s worth, Rob Gronkowski owns the single-season record for receiving yards in a season by a tight end with 1,327.
As for Cooper, he’s on pace for 1,080 yards and Nelson is on pace for 1,096. The last time the Raiders had two 1,000-yard receivers was 2001 (Tim Brown and Jerry Rice) in Jon Gruden’s last year with the team.
It was only a few months ago that Cook was rumored to be on the roster chopping block with his $5.7 million cap number, but fortunately the purge never happened. Cook, who will be 32 next year, will be an unrestricted free agent after the season and it might be a good idea to keep him around.
Now, about that white tiger. Is it soon time for him to climb out of his cage?
twitter: @raidersbeat
That’s b’s. Both Crabtree and Cooper had a 1000 yard season in 2016. Guess you don’t have to do much research to be one of these writers….
If Bryant makes that TD catch he goes over 100 yds
Last time the Raiders had two 1000 yard receivers was 2016. Cooper and Crabtree. Do your homework guy.
Last time Raiders had two 1000yd WR’s was Amari (1153) and Crab (1003) in 2016.