Although Oakland Raiders breakout star tight end Darren Waller struggled to find his footing once again, they still managed to get back into the win column with their clutch victory over the Detroit Lions in Week 9.
It is no secret that Waller is in the midst of a outstanding year after establishing himself as quarterback Derek Carr‘s No. 1 option in the passing game. However, his prowess as a pass-catcher has not gone unnoticed by the rest of the league.
Waller has now become a focal point for opposing defenses looking to make the Raiders’ offense more one-dimensional. Head coach Jon Gruden understands this is what happens when a particular player becomes a point of emphasis.
Gruden says the Raiders have done what they can to try and shore up their weaknesses because of this, via Scott Bair of NBC Sports:
“We try to move him around and there’s an old saying that, ‘we’re going to try and make you play left-handed,’” head coach Jon Gruden said. “We are going to take away your number one option and make you play left-handed, so we’ve tried to improve our left hand.”
Gruden added that the onus is on the rest of the offense to prove they are capable of taking advantage of the extra attention Waller is garnering:
“What we have to do is, if they want to double Waller, you got to get more out of Renfrow and we did,” Gruden said. “We got to get more out of our backs in the passing game. They got to win and they made some big plays yesterday, so our left-handers, I call them left-handers, you guys got to step up and they did. And that’s exciting when you have five eligible players that can all win and I think they all responded pretty good when they had their numbers called yesterday.”
There is certainly plenty of truth to Gruden’s comments given how Oakland was able to pull out the 31-24 win over Detroit. While Waller hauled in just two receptions for the second consecutive week, running back Jalen Richard and wide receiver Hunter Renfrow were able to kick their play up a notch when Oakland needed them most.
It is safe to say that opposing teams will continue to scheme around limiting Waller in the passing game and forcing Carr to beat them with the other players on the field. It will be interesting to see if they can keep it going on a short week against the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday Night Football.
