When they signed Jordy Nelson in March, the Raiders were happy to have a wide receiver to replace Michael Crabtree on the field, but they may have been more excited to replace Crabtree’s presence in the locker room.
What Nelson, who turns 33 this month, will add to the Raiders in terms of production remains to be seen, but his presence in the locker room is already being felt.
NFL Network’s Peter Schrager had this to say of Nelson and the Raiders on Wednesday morning:
“I wasn’t sure about that signing. 33 year-old Jordy Nelson, what did we get here? And then I talked to people in Oakland and they’re saying ‘this dude is unbelievable.’
Forget just the fact that he might be the best route runner in the entire NFL right now. The fact that he walked in and basically running the wide receivers room before OTAs even start, they think that Amari Cooper could be one of the best wide receivers in the NFL, not because of Cooper’s own skill set, but because Jordy Nelson is basically a quarterback in the wide receivers room…”
“Jordy Nelson is basically a quarterback in the wide receivers room.” @PSchrags on why @RAIDERS WR @JordyRNelson is already the biggest offseason addition at the wide receiver position. pic.twitter.com/4HBHMPyeP2
— GMFB (@gmfb) May 16, 2018
Nelson had a down year in 2017, but in the five games that Aaron Rodgers was healthy to start the season, Nelson tallied 19 receptions and six touchdowns.
Given his production and leadership in the locker room, it’s no wonder Rodgers was upset with the Packers for allowing Nelson to leave.
Welcome to Oakland, Jordy.
twitter: @raidersbeat
Only an idiot will say Nelson had a down year. Nelson had 6 Tds in the first 5 games with Rodgers at QB.
Then Hundley came in and ruined that passing game. H7ndley was horrible that’s why GB traded for Kizer who had a terrible rookie year. Yet GB might believe he has more upside than Hundley.
Nelson will be great with Carr and help improve our whole WR corps.
Super excited about Jordy. Think those who look at him at being over the hill pay no attention to the way he looked last year with AR at the helm. He still got it and is an upgrade over Crabtree!
Super excited about Jordy. Think those who look at him at being over the hill pay no attention to the way he looked last year with AR at the helm. He still got it and is an upgrade over Crabtree!
It will be fun to see what improvements Cooper makes with Nelson as his mentor . Who knows ? He might even be able to soothe the volitile Martavius Bryant with a little wisdom and tutelege .
As long as Jordy doesn’t get his chain jacked he’s an upgrade
I liked Crabtree but he turned on the team and took himself out of plays towards the end. He had to go. Jordy will help this team a lot. But there is this also… remember Roethisberger being pissed about the draft? Everybody thought that he was mad because they drafted a QB in the third round…. NOPE! He couldn’t give two $hits about a rookie QB taking his job this year or even next year. He is pissed because they basically traded Martavius Bryant, a ‘today’s weapon’ to the Raiders for Mason Rudolph “a possible weapon” two or three years from now. Ben LOVES Martavius.
This is what Gurden has added to his chili…. Jordy, Matavius, Amari, Seth, Johnny… hell, Ryan… WITH Jared and Derek….. throw in a running game and a solid offensive game plan, Carr will have the best year of his career and the Raiders will be in the top 5 or 6 in receiving yards.
Our defense is highly suspect, but I think our offense should be screaming this year. If the OT’s can keep Carr from getting killed, he could easily go over 5000 yards and close to 40 TD’s this year.
Not sure how highly suspect our defense is any more. Last year our backs were terrible, just horrible. I would rather have a 3rd and 1 than a 3rd and 18 – THAT is how bad they were. This year the Raiders have added a lot of people, both young and old into the safety and corner positions and the competition should be grand. We also added some star power to the rushing game, which will also help the pass defense. Linebackers / the middle of the defense, still holds some bad taste to it but they know it better than we do and they have something behind the curtain scheme-wise to complement the personnel that they have. I am thinking that they have a plan, lets just hope that it is a good one.
Raiders will be get’n that defensive push up the middle that they’ve been miss’n for awhile now, go Raiders!
Great to hear that jordy is a leader.. this can only benefit a young guy like amari. to date, he has had to make his own way, unless 1 would call Crabtree a mentor.. i will give crab credit for being clutch for most of his career in silver & black. I would not call him “a leader of men” however.