The Las Vegas Raiders are still searching for a wide receiver to step up. If that doesn’t happen soon, they may need to look to the trade market.
The Raiders are still in rebuilding mode, so they may not be inclined to trade a high draft pick for George Pickens or Brian Thomas Jr. There aren’t a ton of great options available for cheap, but there’s one player who could make sense.
Jauan Jennings sat in free agency for a long time before signing with the Minnesota Vikings. So far, he has two catches for nine yards this season. He clearly doesn’t have a role in the offense. Jennings worked with Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak in 2023 when they were both with the San Francisco 49ers.
Gary Davenport of Bleacher Report believes that the Raiders are the best for Jennings if he gets traded.
“The Raiders have been surprisingly competitive this season, but the team has one of the weakest assemblages of wide receiver talent in the NFL,” Davenport wrote. “At some point, Fernando Mendoza is going to start at quarterback, and when he does it would be nice to have a reliable target not named Brock Bowers.
“More importantly, the Raiders are coached by Klint Kubiak, who runs a variation of Shanahan’s West Coast offense. The team is a far better scheme fit for what Jennings does well, and he could be acquired for a mid-to-late Day 3 pick.”
Raiders Could’ve Signed Jennings
Jennings was a productive player for the 49ers, but there’s a reason they didn’t want to pay him. He may have only been putting up decent numbers due to the lack of healthy wide receivers in San Francisco.
Jennings was in free agency for weeks, and the Raiders could’ve easily signed him. He only signed a one-year deal worth up to $13 million with incentives. Las Vegas could’ve afforded that.
Kubiak knows Jennings, so if he thought he could make an impact, he would’ve pushed to sign him. If the Raiders are going to trade for Jennings, it’s hard to imagine they’d offer anything more than a sixth-round pick. He likely wouldn’t move the needle much for the team. It’s possible he could even get outright cut by the Vikings, as he clearly isn’t fitting in well with the offense.
Maxx Crosby Praises Josh Allen
Whether or not the Raiders want to trade for a wide receiver could depend on if they can beat the Buffalo Bills in Week 6. The only way they’re going to do that is if they can slow down Josh Allen.
Defensive end Maxx Crosby had big praise for the star quarterback.
“[J]ust seeing how far he’s come as a player, he’s been impressive,” Crosby said, via Raiders.com. “Great competitor and a guy that you got to be at your best.”
“I talk about this all the time, but if you put the work in, put the time in, you start doing laps around people,” he added. “If you do it for a year, and then three years and five [years] and you just consistently work on your game, all the work you do in the dark is going to come out in front of everybody. And I think he’s a testament of that. I give him a lot of credit.”
Raiders Named Best Trade Fit for WR With Ties to Klint Kubiak