Raiders Deep Dive: Wide Receiver Bryan Edwards Is A Beast

Jeff Spiegel
Jeff Spiegel
5 Min Read
Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

When you play in a division with the Kansas City Chiefs, the priority is simple: score points. While obviously defensive players are needed to slow down Patrick Mahomes and Co., the greater need is guys who can get the ball into the end zone in order to keep pace.

And so, it shouldn’t come as a surprise then, that three of the Las Vegas Raiders’ first four picks were on the offensive side of the ball — in Henry Ruggs III, Lynn Bowden and Bryan Edwards. Having already done a deep dive on Ruggs and Bowden, today we turn to Edwards — who I think might be the steal of the entire draft.

Listed at 6’3″ and 212 pounds, Edwards is a freaking tank — especially for a guy who seems to love contact. Named a second-team All-SEC player in 2019, Edwards finished his career with school records for receptions (234), receiving yards (3,045), consecutive games with a catch 48) and was second all-time in receiving touchdowns (22).

So why was he even on the board in the third? In part because of the depth of receivers, but also because a foot injury cost him the chance to run at the combine.

“This is a guy who, if he hadn’t snapped his ankle may have gone higher,” Thor Nystrom of Rotoworld said. “Last year he would have been a second round pick.”

Interestingly enough, a second-round grade is exactly what Mike Mayock said they had for Edwards. But Nystrom believes that may have even been higher if not for the situation he found himself in at South Carolina.

“He was used weird, which didn’t help his cause,” he said. “They throw a lot of screens in stuff which was Deebo (Samuels’) game, and they tried to use Edwards like that but it isn’t really his game. He’s one of the most physical guys in the class, and is freaking shredded when you see him up close, so I imagine the Raiders are going to use him more how he should have been used.”

When you read that scouting report, you can see why the Raiders liked this pick — especially alongside their first-round pick, Ruggs. While Ruggs doesn’t have elite size, he has world-class speed — and so finding a big-bodied, physical receiver to pair with Ruggs made a ton of sense.

“He’s that tough, physical kind of player that the Raiders covet,” Brett Kollman of “The Film Room” said. “He’s a handful for smaller defensive backs to cover because he’s like a dominant center in the paint when he runs his routes, and when he gets the ball in space he instantly turns into a running back. I think he’s the perfect complementary skillset to Ruggs’ blinding speed.”

Oh, and he can do this:

Or, my personal favorite:

The more you dig into Edwards, the more you realize that the Raiders got not only a person they clearly like, but they got a DUDE who should be a difference maker in this offense for a long time. When you look at the young core they are building — with Darren Waller, Josh Jacobs, Hunter Renfrow and now Ruggs, Bowden and Edwards — you can see the makings of an offense that should be among the best in the league.

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Jeff Spiegel was raised in California but currently resides in Portland, Oregon. After graduating from the University of Oregon, he worked in sports before entering journalism full time — first as a Sports Reporter and then as the Associate Editor of a small newspaper. Online, he has been writing about both the Raiders and Dodgers since 2012 — having written for DodgersNation.com and SBNation.com prior to joining both DodgerBlue.com and RaidersNewswire.com. He left full-time journalism in 2012 to become a pastor. Jeff can be found on Twitter at @JeffSpiegel. Favorite Raider This one is an easy one for me: Charles Woodson. When the Raiders drafted him, there was nothing to dislike about the guy — he was exciting and he was freaking good. Unfortunately, of course, he left after eight seasons — but when he returned in 2013 it was one of the better Raider moments of my lifetime. At that point, I didn't care how washed he was (and he wasn't!) — I just liked having him back in the silver and black. Obviously Tim Brown is another guy that was easy to love, but Woodson is the all-timer for me. As far as current, I'm still a believer in Derek Carr and think he's going to figure this all out. Favorite Raider Moment I think I'll go with the two weeks leading up to the 2001 Super Bowl. As a kid, I remember getting the newspaper every morning to read what they were talking about, clipping out the articles to keep for later. It was obviously far more exciting than the Super Bowl itself, but I'll never forget those moments of hope leading up to the Super Bowl. I referenced it above, but second to that was probably the return of Charles Woodson in 2013 — I just loved the guy, and never dreamed he'd actually come back.