Raiders News: Derek Carr Discusses Josh Jacobs’ Growth As Receiver

The Las Vegas Raiders offense should be a high-powered unit during the 2021 season, with the core of receivers returning.

Darren Waller will again lead the group, while Henry Ruggs and Bryan Edwards are expected to have bigger roles after improving their games in the offseason. However, Las Vegas’s bread and butter is the backfield, and they now have a dynamic duo in Josh Jacobs and Kenyan Drake.

Jacobs will likely handle the bulk of the early-down work, while Drake will be the receiving threat on passing downs. However, Jacobs has been hard at work trying to improve as a receiver, and Derek Carr noticed his improvement in that area.

“Yeah, you were front row. You saw him being in the right spot,” Carr said. “That play, usually guys don’t run as hard when they’re in that spot. You saw he was running pretty fast when the DB was behind him and if he doesn’t run, I can’t throw that ball. There’s so much detail that goes into it. But if he doesn’t run full speed to that spot that the ball needs to be thrown in, he won’t be there.

“He’s on it, I’ll just say that. He’s on it. He’s doing a really good job and he’s working hard at it. For him, he caught a few balls but at Alabama they run power. They run it at your face and now he’s trying to get wide and learn how to run routes. He’s asking questions. He’s trying to get better at it and today it was really cool that he caught that because you guys got to see it firsthand, his growth in that area.”

Head coach Jon Gruden has previously expressed that he would like to get Jacobs more involved in the passing game, and the running back’s offseason work has indicated that he could be in line for more targets. Even with Drake on board, Jacobs becoming more of a receiving threat only makes the Silver and Black’s offense more potent, and that should worry opposing defenses going forward.