Two weeks ago, Klint Kubiak provided insight on how his Las Vegas Raiders would earn their roles over the course of the offseason.
“Yeah, we’re counting on them. We’re counting on them to produce for us,” the Raiders head coach responded when asked how important it is for second-year players to make a sophomore leap. “The good thing is there’s competition with (Jack) Bech and with DT (Dont’e Thornton Jr.). There’s a lot of competition in that receiver room, and may the best man win.”
Advertisement
Just a few days later, Kubiak’s trusted offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko echoed similar sentiments when broached with the topic of Bech and Thornton Jr. — the two 2025 NFL draft selections, taken 58th and 108th overall picks, respectively.
“Yeah, I think all those guys are competing their butts off. Every day they come to work they put in time, you can tell they’re studying at night because they come in with a notebook full of questions,” Janocko said. “They’’re always peppering Coach (Zach) Azzanni with questions. It’s not just those two, but that whole position group is exciting because they’re guys that really work hard.”
Azzanni, the coach charged with the development of the Raiders’ wide receiver room, noted earlier this week at this stage of the offseason, it’s a clean slate and proving grounds.
“It’s all open for business,” he said on Tuesday, stressing there are no established roles.
That provides Bech, Las Vegas’ second-round pick in last year’s draft, an opportunity to get past a rookie year that was less than ideal in terms of production and usage. Kubiak assembled a coaching staff that should — should — be more competent than the previous incarnation. And with that, let’s look at the Year 2 bar for Bech.
Advertisement
By The Numbers
Jack Bech, Wide Receiver
-
Career: (2025) 16 games (5 starts), 29 targets, 20 receptions, 224 yards, 0 touchdowns
-
Year 2 Bar: 17 games, 60 targets, 50 receptions, 620 yards, 2 touchdowns
As you can see from the numbers above, the TCU product’s rookie season was sporadic at best. His highest snap count was 46 in a Week 6 win over the Tennessee Titans, a game where Bech had one target with zero catches. His next highest was 41 snaps in a Week 14 loss to the Denver Broncos where he had a season-high six targets for six catches and 50 yards. In six of the 16 games he earned offensive snaps, Bech had zero catches including the regular season finale, a 14-12 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
Avoiding that discombobulated nature of whatever the Raiders offense was called last season is a big reason why Las Vegas brass was patient in interviewing and landing Kubiak — the offensive coordinator for the Super Bowl-winning Seattle Seahawks this past season. And Bech profiles as a system fit for the offense Kubiak is installing with the Silver & Black as the West Coast offense variant relies on physical wide receivers who can run routes and run block. That was the scouting report on Bech: A fearless and physical pass catcher that has inside and outside versatility and who has a basketball rebounder’s mentality when the ball is in flight that uses his 6-foot-1 and 214-pound frame to compensate for the lack of elite downfield speed.
The common theme amongst this rendition of the Raiders is versatility. This coaching staff expects the players to comfortably operate in different spots in alignments to not only curb predictability but create opportunities and depth with the eventual 53-man roster.
As Azzanni noted above, how the Raiders wide receivers complement Kubiak’s run game as blockers on the perimeter will dictate the aerial assault the Silver & Black deploy this coming season. Bech has the size and demeanor to do the dirty work and needs to become as aggressive as blocker as he is as a box-out pass catcher on contested catches.
Advertisement
Our Tristain Kuhn broke down the Raiders’ wide receiver room in his piece predicting the Las Vegas Raiders offensive starters earlier this week, and I agree, it’s a group that has a ton to prove and on the lower echelon of the league. There’s also the logical assumption: Elite tight end Brock Bowers is such a matchup nightmare, he’s more of a big wide receiver with speed than a traditional tight end that he’ll be the high-volume target pass catcher for the Raiders. And that negates the need for a true No. 1 WR.
Fair enough.
But developing that wide receiver room — complementary as it is right now — is a must as the opposition knows Bowers is elite and defenses can deploy a “Bowers gets his, but not one else does” approach to defending the Silver & Black. Kubiak and Co. need other playmakers amongst a league that’s becoming more versatile defending modern offenses.
With Las Vegas eager to get players in all three phases — offense, defense, and special teams — adaptable and flexible to operate in a variety of ways, the concern that the coaching staff may be spreading its roster too thin with a multitude of items on the player’s plate is detrimental, is valid. However, the concept is set to help the coaching staff and general manger John Spytek take inventory of what they have on the 90-man roster to get to the eventual final 53 (plus practice squad).
Advertisement
And it’s up to players like Bech to showcase they merit not only roster considerations but usage when things get real when games count in the win-loss column Week 1.
Read the full article here