The Raiders wide receiver room hasn’t been getting a lot of love in recent weeks, but one player that has been getting some positive buzz is second year wide receiver Jack Bech.
Reports from OTAs have said Bech looks strong and faster than he did a year ago, and The Athletic’s Ted Nguyen thinks the former TCU wide receiver is in line for a more productive role with the new coaching staff.
“I don’t think he’s going to get a thousand yards or anything. but I think he’s going to be a useful part of this offense, and I just don’t know why they couldn’t get him a little bit more involved last year,” Nguyen said on the Just Win podcast.
Despite being a second-round pick, the 2025 coaching staff didn’t prioritize getting Bech on the field and Nguyen’s co-host, Marshall Newhouse, called it an “egregious” mistake to largely ignore Bech in his rookie season.
“The more time goes on, [Bech not playing more last year] is even more egregious,” Newhouse said of the Raiders’ coaching staff. “They just didn’t get him the reps. I understand that maybe there was a level of just him not being ready, perfectly ready, but it’s very obvious that they were not also thinking about how to put him in the best position to succeed.
“I got to follow him. I was calling the TCU Games in 2024 and one of his best traits was when they got him the ball, he made strong handed, contested catches. He’s a strong guy. Then when he came down with the ball, he is not like a burner, but his physicality, he turns into like a running back,” Newhouse continued.
He is so hard to bring down on the run after catch. And to me, that is something I imagine that this new organization has taken into account, and we’ll see exactly where they want to line him up the most…I just think generally, he’s a guy [who can’t get himself open all the time]… if you can scheme him open and give him a chance to run after the catch, he can be a guy who is explosive in this offense.”
And with his final rebuke of last year’s coaching staff, Newhouse said the situation under Pete Carroll last year was worse than it looked on the outside.
“I don’t think people understand how things went last year was with Pete Carroll and company was so far from normal,” Newhouse said. “To then issue a full judgment on a young player, it just blows my mind.”
Last month, flagship radio host ‘JT the Brick’ talked about last year’s class, and he pointed to the coaching staff as the reason the Raiders’ rookie class didn’t play more in 2025.
“Last year’s draft, you can’t say it was good. The best compliment you could give last year is that it was an incomplete draft, because the coaching staff that got let go wouldn’t play any of the draft picks,” JT said on his Raider Nation Radio show.
“They wouldn’t play them. The young players didn’t get a chance to play, so they’re coming back in year two, like two offensive linemen, along with Jack Bech [and] Dont’e Thornton Jr. They didn’t get a chance to play, really. So they’re going to come in with this draft class, and hopefully they get more opportunity to play.”
The reason the Raiders didn’t play the rookies more in ’25 has never been explained (and least not with an explanation that made sense), but it’s fair to wonder if a series of comments from Nguyen in April offered some insight.
“I’ve heard that last year (Raiders GM John Spytek) kind of shut people out, kind of went rogue and did his own thing,” Nguyen said of Spytek’s handling of the draft in 2025.
“I think this year, having a whole year to work on the draft with his people preparing and everything, whereas last year he was kind of hired and had to go into the draft right away, not knowing everybody around him. He hired Brian Stark, the assistant GM, who was part of the presser after the draft last year. So he knows who he’s working with. This is his coach that he hired. It’s going to be a bit different with how he works with everyone and how he collaborates with everyone.”
It’s no secret that Spytek and former head coach Pete Carroll weren’t on the same page with a lot of their decisions, and it’s fair to wonder if Carroll might have retaliated by benching players that Spytek went “rogue” and drafted.
It’s only a theory, but with so many losses piled up by the Raiders by Thanksgiving, what else would explain why the rookies were largely ignored in a season that was clearly not going anywhere by the mid-point of the schedule?
x: @raidersbeat
Was Chewin gum Pete paid a hell of a lot to tank the Raiders and disappear?
Not a bad theory .. it was what we needed
Finally have a QB.!!!