Earlier in the week, Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter said he would expect Jakobi Meyers, Tre Tucker and Dont’e Thornton to be at the top of the Raiders’ depth chart if the season started today, and on Tuesday he added to those comments a little.
According to Carpenter, second-round pick Jack Bech is having a very good training camp, but all the young wide receivers are being overshadowed by Thornton.
“Jack Bech is having an excellent camp. It is unfair to Bech that he isn’t getting more praise, but that isn’t his fault. Dont’e Thornton has stolen the spotlight from the young wide receivers,” Carpenter reported on Tuesday.
“[Alex] Bachman… is doing things to get noticed every day, but Thornton is making big plays and making it look effortless. The Raiders’ brain trust is thrilled with Thornton, and frankly, elated with the WR room.”
It will be interesting to see how Thornton plays when the practices and preseason get more physical, but for not it looks like GM John Spytek it a home run with the Thornton pick.
Thornton was widely projected to be a third or fourth round pick, but according to Carpenter, there were teams trying to move up in the draft to get him when the Raiders took him with the 108th pick.
“I think he’s special,” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast in May. “There were teams trying to trade up to get him when the Raiders selected him, so that’s a big deal. And I know that for a fact, because one of my friends’ teams was one of the teams trying to get up and he sent me a text when the Raiders picked him.”
There will be growing pains this year with a young wide receiver group, but the future at the position certainly looks a lot brighter than it did a few months ago.
x: @raidersbeat