Raiders’ quick slants: Season finale edition

Las Vegas starts well but gets zapped by Bolts’ will

Zapped by the Bolts and picking No. 6 overall in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Now that the season is over for the Las Vegas Raiders after a 34-20 thumping from the Los Angeles Chargers, feel free to banter about your anger on how the Silver & Black “ruined” their draft chances — boisterously so, even.

Because, after all, the Raiders’ back-to-back wins in Week 16 and 17 against the Jacksonville Jaguars and New Orleans Saints did drop the Silver & Black out of the Top 5 running in April’s draft. Before those two victories, Las Vegas was in a neck-and-neck race with the New York Giants for the No. 1 overall selection. Instead, the Raiders are set to pick sixth and the G-Men select third.

Yet, there was a particular someone who wasn’t the same braggadocios individual who was Captain Hyperbole in the offseason and heading into the 2024 campaign after the regular season finale drubbing: Antonio Pierce.

“No comment,” the Raiders head coach simply said when the first question for him in the post game press conference was does he have any clarity on him coming back next year as the head man.

“No comment,” Pierce responded in the final question of the presser on does he feel like he deserves another opportunity to lead the Raiders in 2025.

Clarity will come soon enough for Pierce and the Raiders organization as a whole. The team did wrap up a disconcerting 2024 campaign that saw the Silver & Black limp across the finish line at 4-13 overall.

While there’s plenty to lament over, the year did have it’s bright spots. Particularly veteran wide receiver Jakobi Meyers and rookie tight end Brock Bowers.

Just 96 yards shy of his first-ever 1,000-yard season in the NFL, the Raiders targeted Meyers early and often and the receiver finished with a nine receptions for 123 yards and a touchdown. That gives Meyers 87 receptions for 1,027 yards and four touchdowns in his second season in Silver & Black.

Meyers, who isn’t going to open eyes with pure speed but manages to dust defenders with route running, is a textbook example of a possession receiver who gets yards after the catch. But the veteran is also a savvy blocker who helps both the passing and ground game by removing one of the 11 defend3ers due to his ability to block. Hence why surmounting the 1,000-yard plateau is an impressive feat for Meyers.

“Yeah, how about it, right? Probably didn’t start off as number one for us with who we had here. And then drafting Brock Bowers, then all of a sudden Jakobi (Meyers) gets put back in the spotlight,” Pierce said. “To me, it’s just the ultimate compliment for this player because he’s done all the dirty work, the crack blocks, the run blocking, reverses, throw the ball, whatever we asked him to do. Now he gets an opportunity to showcase himself as a premiere or a legitimate number one receiver and put himself kind of in that category.”

(And, for those counting at home, Las Vegas’ former No. 1 wide receiver — Davante Adams — finished the 2024 season with 85 catches for 1,063 yards and eight touchdowns. Meyers didn’t finish too far off.)

Then, there’s Bowers.

The No. 13 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft hauled in four passes for 50 yards and a touchdown to cap a record-setting initial season in the pros. Bowers finishes with 112 receptions for 1,194 yards and five touchdowns. He’s the new record setter for rookie receptions and tight end yards.

Not only that, but Bowers ends third overall in the NFL in catches just behind the Cincinnati Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase (127) and Detroit Lions’ Amon-Ra St. Brown (115). With 596 of yards after the catch, Bowers finished fourth overall amongst his peers in that category. Impressive work for a player deemed pro ready coming out of Georgia.

Outside of Meyers and Bowers and an impressive start against the Bolts, there was little else for Las Vegas to hold high on a pedestal. The team trailing by double digits became common place. Mistakes by players and coaches (particularly Pierce) were glaring. And general manager Tom Telesco must roll up his sleeves to continue building a team that saw three AFC West squads make the postseason dance.

Ouch.

Let’s hit the quick slants as fast as the playoff-bound Chargers broke away from the Raiders in the regular season finale:

—Raiders rookie cornerback Decamerion Richardson capped his first season in the NFL by getting immolated by Chargers wide receiver Quentin Johnson. The Bolts wideout finished with 13 catches for 186 yards and did a lot of the work against Richardson. It’ll be up to Richardson to turn the tough learning lessons as motivation heading into the offseason and Year 2.

—Veteran defensive tackle Adam Butler collected the Raiders lone sack in the finale. He ends the year with five sacks to go along with 65 tackles. The 30-year-old is a valuable rotational tackle up front and it’ll be interesting if he re-ups with Las Vegas as an unrestricted free agent or sees what the market has to offer.

—Middle linebacker Robert Spillane finished with a career-high 16 total tackles in the loss. He ends his 2024 campaign with 158 total tackles setting a new career-high in that regard. Spillane is one of 16 Raiders slated to hit unrestricted free agency this coming March. Las Vegas has a total of 27 free agents but six are restricted and five are exclusive rights free agents, along with the 16 unrestricted types.

—Bowers wasn’t the only rookie from Georgia to shine his first year as an NFL pass catcher in the AFC West. Chargers wide receiver Ladd McConkey hauled in five passes for 95 yards in Los Angeles’ victory and finished with 82 catches for 1,149 yards and seven touchdowns.

—Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson finished 2-for-2 from field goal range while punter AJ Cole III blasted the ball three times for 180 yards, averaging 60 yards per punt. Chargers place kicker Cameron Dicker went 4-for-5 on his kicks and punter JK Scott booted the ball once for 47 yards.

Quote of Note:

“Yeah, I think it’s awesome. What I’m definitely learning now, it’s the end of my second year, there’s no wasted years in the NFL, even if you don’t win as many games as you hope to or play as well as you hope to. I think it’s awesome just to build relationships, obviously with coaches and with my other teammates. So, yeah, I’ll definitely remember this year as definitely a trying year, but I think those years you learn to appreciate down the road. So, I know I’ll look back and appreciate this year.” —Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Aidan O’Connell on how proud he was of the team for sticking together and not giving up despite the 4-13 finish.