The Raiders are coming away from one of their most promising offseasons in recent memory, and with new head coach Klint Kubiak in the building, it’s going to be interesting to see how some of the position battles play out in 2026.
From the outside, the wide receiver room in Las Vegas seems to be as unsettled as any position group on the team, and a surprise player that seems to have made an impression during OTAs is rookie wide receiver Malik Benson.
ESPN’s Ryan McFadden named Benson his “surprise” of the Raiders’ offseason, and there is a little talk in June that Benson could end up taking playing time from a couple of last year’s draft picks.
Jesse Merrick has been among a group of beat writers around the Raiders all offseason and he believes Benson is going to shake up the wide receiver room, particularly as it relates to Jack Bech and Dont’e Thornton.
Throughout the offseason, Jesse Merrick has been part of a team of beat writers covering the Raiders, and he has some confidence that Benson is going to bring changes to the wide receiver group, especially concerning Jack Bech and Dont’e Thornton.
“I think that the rookie Malik Benson outsnaps Jack Bech and Dont’e Thornton Jr. as a true wide receiver,” Merrick said on the Silver & Black Sports Network podcast.
“Don’t factor in special teams here, and possibly [Benson] could even beat them out on special teams too. But for starters, I do like the kids’ game. First and foremost, that’s what I want to make sure I say. He’s obviously a burner, but he also is not afraid to catch the ball over the middle of the field and go and get it when it’s outside of his frame. It doesn’t need to be in the box for him to catch it. I think if you go and watch the film, you will see that. I think he brings enough versatility to move inside and outside as well.”
While Benson seems to be trending in a good direction, it doesn’t necessarily feel like Bech has made the same impression on the Raiders coaching staff.
Last month, after Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers said Bech didn’t stand out during the OTA sessions he attended, the flagship host clarified his comments but still didn’t paint the most optimistic picture.
“Myself and Vinny Bonsignore were talking about [Bech] after mandatory minicamp got wrapped up and basically all we were saying, and it has blown up way out of proportion, what we were saying is [Bech] didn’t show anything in mandatory minicamp. He didn’t show anything in OTAs,” Myers said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show.
“Remember, it was only a handful of practices. We literally saw three OTAs and we saw two days of mandatory minicamp. That was it. And there was nothing that he did at that time that popped. It doesn’t mean he’s not going to be a really good player,” Myers continued.
“It just means it didn’t happen in OTAs. It didn’t happen in mandatory midi camp for one reason or the other. Malik Benson was getting a lot more burn. He was getting some attention. Tre Tucker was getting some attention, right? You saw Jalen Naylor getting some attention and it just didn’t really pop for Jack Bech. Again, that doesn’t mean that he’s not going to be a really good player and where people have taken it out of proportion and what me and Vinny were talking about was basically saying that we’re saying he’s not good.”
“I’m not saying that. I thought what I saw from him in camp was a need to probably be more physical at the line of scrimmage, get off of the press coverage a little bit better, get a little bit of separation, something all wide receivers need to do, right? I think Jack Bech has a bright future, but he’s got to show it once the pads come on.”
x: @raidersbeat
Someone needs to proofread these stories before they’re posted. You have two paragraphs that say exactly the same thing in slightly different words and there are misspellings. Also, I can’t help but notice that the “insiders” were talking about Thornton in exactly the same way last year, leading me to take a swing on him with the last pick of my fantasy teams. What we can hope is that all the WRs get more opportunity. Since Geno had zero time to throw behind our leaky OL, maybe this year our WRs will have time to get in position and make some catches of passes that come their way.