Jakobi Meyers has been at the center of trade rumors for the last few weeks and with less a day to the trade deadline, it’s starting to look like he might not be going anywhere.
Meyers’ immediate future in Las Vegas will be sorted out in the next 24 hours, but nothing about the way the coaching staff has handled the young wide receivers in recent weeks would suggest they are excited about moving on from their veteran wide receivers.
Jack Beck and Dont’e Thornton Jr. were drafted in the second and fourth rounds of this year’s draft, respectively, but neither were involved in single offensive play on Sunday.
Thornton was one of the bright spots of this year’s training camp and played 229 offensive snaps over the first seven games of the season but was a healthy inactive in week 9. As for Bech, he was on the active roster but didn’t get into the game.
It was an unexpected approach to essentially bench both rookie wide receivers, and there’s a good chance Raiders’ GM John Spytek isn’t going to sign off on that dynamic playing out a lot more in the second half of the season.
On a similar note at a different position, offensive coordinator Chip Kelly didn’t use sixth-overall pick Ashton Jeanty this week the way many were expecting, either.
Jeanty had 13 carries against the Jaguars and Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers shared his thoughts on Jeanty’s feeble workload on Monday.
“I still don’t think they ran the ball enough. I still don’t think that they had a commitment to the run game. Jeanty started off the game, two carries,17 yards. There was a point where he was averaging about nine yards a carry, then fourth and one, they decided to roll Geno out and it goes incomplete,” Myers said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show podcast.
“To me, it’s almost a resistance from Chip Kelly and I’m just saying this from the naked eye looking at it. It just almost seems like he just refuses to have a true commitment to running the ball. I mean, Jeanty to end the game with 15 carries? It’s just not enough. He’s that kind of guy. He needs more carries.”
It isn’t clear who decides on playing time among offensive players on the roster, but it seems clear from Carroll’s comments over the last two months that he has given a lot of freedom to Kelly.
But whether it’s Kelly or someone else sorting out playing time, it seems obvious from the outside that somebody on the Raiders’ sideline hasn’t been impressed with the rookie wideouts.
x: @raidersbeat
They make these picks and then they forget about them. Even their 2 Rookie O-Linemen get ZERO Looks. This Team Stinks (or actually the Coaching Stinks) – shouldn’t they be trying to “Develop” the New Blood? They don’t even believe in their own acquisitions!! Even #2 Jeanty – the 6th overall gets so little work that he doesn’t break a Sweat. This Coaching Staff is an Embarrassment and a Shameful display of COMPLETE incompetence… This is Not a Sinking Pirate Ship… It sits at the Bottom of the Sea with the Titanic
I agree except I’m sick of every mediot thinking we need to run Jeanty 50 times. He’s good but he’s not HOF player like Bowers
Nothing from nothing leaves nothing.