Las Vegas Raiders coach Klint Kubiak had some terse comments as he left the field at halftime of the Raiders’ 22-20 win over the Houston Texans on Thursday night, as he referenced needing to give rookie quarterback Fernando Mendoza “more help” after the quarterback’s brutal start.
It sounded like typical coach-speak after watching his rookie QB struggle, but it turns out there’s more to the story as Kubiak called out his receivers after reviewing the game tape, according to a report from Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk.
Kubiak was asked what he learned about his receivers after the jount practices and poor initial offensive effort against Houston, and he didn’t hold back or try to spin positive.
“I learned a lot, that we have to get a lot better very fast,” Kubiak said. “We took a step backwards. That doesn’t mean we can’t go forward, but right now we are trying to find someone that is accountable and can help us on Sunday. Still looking.”
The current starters are Tre Tucker, Jack Bech and Jalen Nailor, and they haven’t done much. Bech had a couple of catches against the Arizona Cardinals in the Raiders’ opening 27-14 loss, and Nailor did have one brief shining moment against Houston as Mendoza found him for a 22-yard strike in one of the quarterback’s few positives.
This isn’t exactly unexpected. Offensively, the Raiders invested most of their cap space shoring up their offensive line as they chose to overpay free agent center Tyler Linderbaum and reset the center market in the process despite reports that they were basically bidding against themselves.
But the entire NFL was shocked that the Raiders didn’t go out and get a true number one receiver. Instead they’re relying on an underwhelming group plus a pair of outstanding tight ends in Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer, and it’s clearly going to take a lot more if the Las Vegas offense is going to consistently score points.
The Raiders did sign receiver Noah Brown this week, but he’s basically a retread who’s struggled with health issues throughout his career. There are aren’t a lot of options out there right now, although there will be plenty of other veteran retreads available when roster cutdowns come to fruition.
It feels like wishful thinking to expect a big jump from what’s currently on the roster, but that’s what Kubiak will apparently try to pull of in the next couple of weeks with the season opener against the Miami Dolphins fast approaching.
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