The Raiders have played through some growing pains with their rookie wide receivers in the first half of the season and on Thursday night, Jack Bech and Dont’e Thornton Jr. were both called for penalties that wiped out big plays.
A holding penalty on Bech took away a big run from Ashton Jeanty and an offensive pass interference on Thornton took a Tre Tucker touchdown off the scoreboard.
Overall, it’s been a disappointing season for Bech and Thornton, but it hasn’t been from a lack of heart and effort.
After Thursday’s game, the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vinny Bonsignore said Thornton was “bawling” in the locker room because of an offensive pass interference and a dropped pass.
“Quite plain and simple, a teary-eyed [Thornton] and I’m talking about, he was crying in the locker room last night [after the game],” Bonsignore said on Raider Nation Radio’s Morning Tailgate.
“For anyone that wants to come at Dont’e Thornton and say what you want, you need to be in the locker room and understand how much that killed Dont’e Thornton to his heart, the mistakes that he made last night. He was bawling in the locker room, and I have a video that’s going to be out there later today of how much that really tore him apart. But the bottom line is, you want to play young players, and I fully agree with that.”
From the outside, it’s been hard to tell what the Raiders’ coaching staff thinks of Thornton and Bech because their playing time has been so inconsistent. One week Thornton isn’t on the active roster and the next week he has a full-time role while Bech reverts to the sideline.
What we know, though, is that neither wide receiver has stood out in the first half of the season, but that can be said about a lot of players under offensive coordinator Chip Kelly in his first season with the Raiders.
When the offensive coordinator and quarterback can’t seem to get things figured out, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that two rookie wide receivers would be slow to adapt, as well.
Last week, Pete Carroll explained why Thornton was inactive and it sounds like it was just a numbers game from the coach’s standpoint.
“I wanted to see what Tyler [Lockett] would do,” Carroll told members of the media last week. “I wanted to get him on the field, see what would happen, and it’s his spot,” Carroll told members of the media on Monday. “So because of special teams or not enough contributions, he had to go down on this one. That’s just one week. We’ll see what happens next week.”
It was Bech took a backseat role against the Broncos on Thursday night (only 14 offensive snaps) while Thornton was on the field for 37 offensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus analytics.
With the season now at the halfway point, the hope is that Bech and Thornton will soon start to make an impact.
Maybe week 11 against the Cowboys will be the week.
x: @raidersbeat
I think it this is a good kid, a 4th round pick, and the Nation was told he had a big learning curve. Now, do to some inept roster building, and injuries, people have raised their expectations. It’s not fair to the player. I’m more concerned about Bech, but only because it looks like he was taken too early. Remember Draft Day; What a steal Bech was? I never heard that in the outside of the Vegas. Who is the receivers coach? I don’t know, but maybe he should be called out.
This is 100% the right take, IMO. If it wasn’t for the expectations placed on him by the media covering the team (and a few outsiders), would anyone feel that disappointed by his season? This should be a lesson for fans and media alike. Stop calling players “steals” until they do it in games. The DK Metcalf comps were insane to anyone who remembers those pre-draft photos of DK where he looked built like a dang 3-4 speed rusher
Given the amount of playing time, you’d like to see more production, but he has had some flashes. I’ve seen numerous plays where he roasted DBs and Geno either missed him or didn’t have enough time. Obviously, those plays on Thursday were killers, but he’s not the reason the Raiders are where they are. It’s been 20 years of mismanagement.
As long as he keeps doing the best he can to improve, the book on Donte Thornton is far from finished.
Really what about the interception caused by Jeanty? Or the lack of production from Jeanty? Or the missing 3rd rd OL guys? Bech was a ridiculous selection in the 2nd, but than again every selection was a round or two too early. Bad penalty by Bech however if he doesn’t hold the DB is getting to AJ and he’s stopped much sooner. If Thorton doesn’t intentionally seek out the DB on the pick play than it’s not going to be a TD. I won’t blame individuals on the roster (that is terrible due to Brady and Pete). Doesn’t it seem weird that as soon as JPJ got hurt the offense went down the drain? I wonder if Pete’s realized that Cappa & Meredith shouldn’t be starting yet?