Despite having three Pro Bowl pass catchers in Davante Adams, Hunter Renfrow, and Darren Waller, the Las Vegas Raiders’ pass offense has just been middle of the road so far this season. It was made to look even worse in last Sunday’s embarrassing performance against the New Orleans Saints when Derek Carr threw for just 101 yards.
Making things even worse is that Adams and Renfrow caught just one ball each for eight combined yards, as the offense was completely shut down. Injuries have made things more difficult, and Waller did miss that game, and his status for this Sunday is unclear. But there are issues beyond that, and Hall of Famer Kurt Warner broke some things down from last Sunday’s contest.
In breaking down the Raiders’ offense, Warner believes the team had too many low percentage attempts to Adams as the Saints were determined to make someone else beat them, and no one stepped up, via Raiders Beat:
“Derek [Carr] was trying to go there every time he got a one on one. Again, I’d like to see them run more stops, more comebacks, more slants, more in routes with Davante in that one-on-one position so it’s not always a go route that we’re trying to hit […] low percentage throws every single time to Davante Adams. The only completion that had to him was a wide receiver screen and you saw the attempts that they had [to him] were all low percentage attempts in this game.”
“A lot of different things going on there, but the biggest thing is the Saints said, ‘Somebody else, beat us. Show us that if you’re going to beat us in this game that Davante Adams is not going to be the reason for it, that somebody else will step up enough to beat us.’ And obviously that didn’t happen.’”
Warner added that the Raiders will need to figure something out fast as other teams are sure to follow the same blueprint moving forward:
“I have to believe every other team is going to watch this blueprint and they’re going to say the same thing,” Warner said. “[Teams will say] ‘Hey, this is what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to find a way to get a guy over top and underneath of Davante Adams. We’ve got to find a way to get a guy inside and a guy outside of Davante Adams and we’re going to force somebody else to beat us.’”
As Renfrow and Waller have dealt with injuries at different points throughout the season so far, Mack Hollins has had some promising moments for the Raiders, and the run game has been excellent behind Josh Jacobs when they have given him carries.
With Renfrow healthy and Waller hopefully back on the field soon, the Raiders have several players who should be able to thrive with all the attention Adams is garnering. It will be on the coaching staff to ensure they are doing everything possible to take advantage of all the weapons on this team.
