Raiders Coach Antonio Pierce Defends His WR Corps

The Las Vegas Raiders have arguably the best wide receiver in the National Football League, Davante Adams.

Still, other than Adams, the Raiders do not have many receivers that are well-known on a national level. The lack of attention to the receivers on the roster other than Adams is not lost upon Coach Antonio Pierce, who recently took the time to credit two of the team’s less-talked-about receivers, Tre Tucker and Jakobi Meyers.

"There's two guys I'm going to point out and obviously the obvious ones, but one guy really stood out this offseason, Tre Tucker - different dude,” Pierce said on Thursday. “He looks different, acts different, runs different, catches the ball different. Don't look at the size; don't mention that. Watch him play. He's the biggest guy out there.”

Pierce said Tucker has had a productive offseason and looks like a different player on the field. Although Tucker does not possess the frame of a prototypical wide receiver, he does possess the speed to help the Raiders offense challenge opposing defenses deep. Tucker has undoubtedly looked bigger and stronger in practices this offseason.

“He had a hell of an offseason, came back right after the offseason program, the Super Bowl, and got in here and started working, and was here every day. Blazer, we know about the speed," Pierce said. "But everything that we talked about working on he took that to another level, and you can see the look in his eye of a confident player, of a guy that just wants to constantly get better. [Tucker is] pushing, and the guy that's right next to him, who I get it because you have to Davante [Adams], and these guys kind of get pushed in the background, Jakobi [Meyers.]”

Meyers quietly finished last season with over 800 receiving yards. More importantly, he proved to be the perfect complement to Adams in the Raiders’ passing attack last season. In his first season with the Raiders, Meyers tied with Adams for the most receiving touchdowns last season, with eight.

He finished the season just over 300 yards behind Adams, although he received nearly 70 fewer targets than Adams last season.

“Jakobi is that guy,” Pierce said. “When you say I need a dog, Jakobi is that dog. Jakobi is an alpha, Jakobi is fearless, Jakobi works probably as hard as any player on our team. You saw this last year; his commitment in the run game speaks volumes because he could be easily a 100-reception and 1,000-yard receiver, but it’s all those other things, it's those crack back blocks, it’s those hits on the D-end, the linebacker, getting his nose bloody, rolling up his sleeves, flexing on guys, setting the tone. His energy and presence, he might not say a lot, and you guys know him, he's kind of real slick, real slick and slight of words, but when he speaks, you better listen because he's got some substance behind him.

“So, those two guys have really taken a really good jump for us. It's been really good to see because we're not going to win this game with one person. We’ll win this game as a collective group at the wide receiver core, tight end, running back, and the quarterback, it’s not just on one guy. And we are going to win or lose by that, and these guys are really bought into the team aspect that it takes all of us to do it.”

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