Klint Kubiak CALLS OUT Raiders WR Room...

So there seems to be some discourse, discord? I never know which one it is. There's discourse flying around about the Waiters, the Waiters, the Raiders' current wide receiver room. And I wanted to get into it because I think people are kind of moving the goalposts and they're missing the bigger picture with the Waiters' wide receiver. It's really hard to say Raiders' wide receiver room without sounding like Bugs Bunny or what is it, Elmer Fudd. You try it in the comments. People are saying, Kubrick called out the wide receivers or it's crazy they didn't bring in a veteran or draft somebody or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And look, I'm not gonna be here telling you that the Raiders' wide receiver room is the perfect wide receiver room. It's not. And I'm also not gonna come on here and tell you, well, the number one wide receiver on the Raiders is Brock Bowers, Brock Bowers. We know. I've said that before. People know their best weapon is Brock. And he is otherworldly and he's awesome and he's gonna play a lot of wide receiver, which means Mayer's gonna be at the lot of two for tight end. That doesn't mean that the Raiders shouldn't have added somebody. That doesn't mean that the Raiders need to add somebody. We need to break this down so it can all make sense because, again, there was a lot of discourse and discussion in the offseason about we're gonna draft somebody in the first or second round. It's going to be Omar Cooper, Fernando Mendoza's teammate in college. It's gonna be Denzel Boston, who was there in the second round. Same thing with a defensive tackle. We're gonna have a defensive tackle. We never did. And initially, we were confused by it, but then we saw, okay, Trey Tucker might take a step, Jack Basch, Malik Benson's flashing. We signed Jalen Naylor. Not a huge contract, but here's the issue that I have with people saying I can't believe they didn't bring somebody in. Now, I'm gonna pull up here a video from NFL Live, and I'm gonna reference this video in two separate videos because they talk a little bit about Mendoza, and then they talk a little bit about the wide receiver room, and just to be clear, this isn't me calling out Mina Kimes. I love Mina. She's one of my favorites, but it's something that she says here that a lot of people share the same sentiment that I wanna talk about this sentiment, and she's the one who just happened to say it most recently, so I'm gonna let her talk about it. Yeah, I love that you highlighted how his pocket management improved and led him to, later on that final drive, or that, the next drive, pardon me, a better result because I do think that's what the preseason is about for Mendoza. It's just development, growth, getting those reps under center. I thought it was an encouraging, another encouraging start. I like that Coach Kubiak highlighted the toughness in the face of pressure because that was one of the qualities I liked the most about Fernando in college. It actually reminded me a little bit of Jared Goff, the willingness to stand in there and take hits, and you saw that, again, on display this time. I do think, you know, I have some concerns maybe about the Raiders. I know this is the backup offensive line. You got backups going up against backups, but I do worry a little bit about the depth. You worry a little bit about the skill players. I mean, that final drive, which I thought was excellent on Fernando's part, would have been extended if not for a drop. It was a well-placed out on third down that should have been caught. Again, those aren't your starters, but still do worry a little bit about the circumstances, but all that. Okay, still do worry a little bit about the circumstances. If I was on the panel and I was pushing back on the idea that you should be worried about the skill position, my question to Mina would be this. You say you're worried about the Raiders' skill position in regards to Fernando. What worries you about it? And then she would say, well, there's not a star. There's not a guy that you can just 50-50 ball. Again, we know Brock Bowers. There's not, you know, there's not a true blue, like wide receiver one in this room, I would imagine she would say. There's a lot of not great, and I would say, okay, yeah. Okay, they add one. Let's just say somehow they traded for A.J. Brown. Now what? Does A.J. Brown fit Fernando Mendoza's timeline? Are the Raiders now a threat to win the division because they have A.J. Brown? No, of course not, because you mentioned in that same breath, the offensive line. We already know that Fernando Mendoza is not starting right away, so it's actually Kirk Cousins who's playing a lot. We think Ashengenti's gonna be really awesome this year with Mike Washington, but we're unsure about how the run game's going to be right now, and the defense is a big question mark with a first-time coordinator, and oh yeah, we have a first-time head coach. So if the Raiders this offseason, with the money they didn't have because they didn't trade Max Crosby, were to add a number one wide receiver, the only one that they could get is A.J. Brown, they would have had to trade at least one first-round pick, and I don't think it's smart for the team that just drafted a quarterback first overall that had three wins last year to go out and trade for somebody using draft capital going all in on what? Fernando Mendoza not even playing right away. To me, that doesn't make any sense. Joe Burrow's first year, they did not have Jamar Chase. They weren't great. They were able to draft in the top 10. They drafted Jamar Chase. Drake May's first year, they had no skill position guys, and then his next year, they added Stephon Diggs, and then they expedited the timeline, and now they have A.J. Brown in his third year. It's not really a recipe for success to have a rookie quarterback come in a la J.J. McCarthy and have somebody demanding of them the football. Derek Carr, a year later was Amari Cooper, and a year later was Michael Crabtree. I understand looking at the Raiders' wide receiver room holistically and saying it's not good enough, but when you say that, you're saying it's not good enough to compete for a division or win the championship, which they're not in position to do even if they had the best wide receiver in the league on their team. Because of the defense, because of the run game, because of the O-line, things that have been mentioned. They could've gone out and had Stephon Diggs for a year or two, who doesn't fit the timeline. Because then now, when Fernando Mendoza takes the reins in year two or year three, Stephon Diggs is done. I don't understand this notion that the rebuild had to fill every specific hole, pause if necessary, right away. Yes, we still need probably a legit wide receiver if one of these four that we're gonna break down doesn't pop. Yeah, maybe we need another defensive tackle if Tonka Hemingway doesn't become a really, really, really good player. You know what else we also needed before the season, before the off-season started? A quarterback. We got two of those. We needed a backup running back, got one of those. We needed two new linebackers, got Quay Walker and N'Kobe Dean. We needed a left guard in Spencer Burford. We needed a center in Tyler Linderbaum, which we broke the bank. And we needed more draft capital. And we tried to do that trading Max Crosby and it blew up in our face. We love that though because we like having Max here on the roster. But even people on these TV networks would say, Max Crosby doesn't fit the timeline, you should probably trade for him. But should we trade for A.J. Brown? If we're trading Max Crosby away, why are we then bringing in a number one wide receiver? It doesn't make any sense to me. And if then the argument is bring in a veteran, to do what? To take reps away from Tucker and Besh and Naylor and Benson? Young guys that could be ascending in this league? Nobody thinks any of these people are gonna become JSN. But JSN wasn't even as good as he was until Clint Kubiak got his hands on him. Maybe he would have been that good regardless. But my point is this, it doesn't make any sense to me for the continued idea of the Raiders failed this team and Fernando Mendoza by not bringing somebody in. To do what? To win seven games instead of five? Because you traded a first for A.J. Brown and now you can't draft Jeremiah Smith or Cam Coleman because you won two extra games with A.J. Brown? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Maybe I'm crazy, maybe I'm wrong, but you guys let me know in the comments below. You know, I'm assuming a large chunk of my viewing audience, the Raider fans, the athletes, the former student athletes, whether that's high school and college, as you've gotten older, have shared the same experiences I have. And that experience being, looking back on the student athlete schedule and thinking how in the world was I able to function on four hours sleep after going to school, playing basketball, practicing, eating dinner, doing homework, and going to bed? Because now if I don't get six to seven or eight hours of sleep minimum, my body is a nightmare. And I think one of the most underrated aspects of getting a good night's sleep is the mattress that you're using, which is why I'm so, so, so excited to say that this video is sponsored by B.E.A.R. 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So if you wanna transform your sleep like I did, and like a few subscribers that I know actually bought mattresses did, by the way, let me know if you bought one, and tell me what you think. Head over to B.E.A.R.mattress.com, and use the promo code ALLABOARD. Also linked in the description below to get 40% off your B.E.A.R. mattress, 40% off. And when you get your mattress, leave a comment that ALLABOARD Raiders sent you. It helps the channel out tremendously, and it tells them that they came from here. Thank you so much, B.E.A.R., for sponsoring the video. Now let's get back to it. Okay, so we have the article here of Clint Kubiak calling out the wide receiver room. We talked about this a little bit before, but I do wanna just recap for some people who don't know about this. Malik Benson, the Raiders wide receivers were unable to convert opportunities against the Houston Texans defense. This is Phillip Robinson on Silver and Black Pride. When Las Vegas Raiders coach Clint Kubiak was asked on his opinions of the wide receiver room, he did not shy away from it. Kubiak addressed the question head on with candor, and for a man who doesn't say much, that speaks volumes. He appears to be realizing he must find a guy who can distinguish themselves from the pack. As a whole, his entire wide receiving core has taken a step backwards, learned a lot. They gotta get a lot better and fast. They took a step back, are still looking for someone who is accountable. Has Clint lost his faith in the wide receivers? Not by a long shot, but he is the realist, and the Raiders need to get a whole lot better in the remaining three weeks before the season opener. Two weeks before the preseason, the Raiders team leading receivers, Cedric Jackson and Brandon Johnson are tied with Pittsburgh receivers each. Tucker, Naylor, and Besh, all expected starters. Both played about a series apiece. Quarterbacks, Kurt Cousins and Fernando Mendoza. If you're willing to take Kubiak at his word, none of them made an impact in the joint practice with the Texans before the preseason week two game, calling his guys out on the media usually goes one of two ways. Okay, so here's the thing. Here's the thing. I talked about this already, but my take on this is, yeah, they haven't been playing good enough, but this is Kubiak's way to just fire people up and get people to rise to the occasion. He wouldn't say this with any malice or like, hey, John Spitek, go get me a guy. It's coach speak. We don't have to think too deeply into this. But what was interesting is that Steve Smith, did a video about the Raiders, here I go again, Raiders wide receiver room. I didn't watch it to be fair, but Sanjit said, just watch Steve Smith Jr.'s video from today talking about Raiders wide receivers. He said Trey Tucker's route running is not good. Malik Benson is a better route runner. Jack Best is a bust, likely never live up to the second round. Jalen Naylor is the Cooper Cup of the Raiders offense. And Sanjit follows up saying, I do agree that Trey Tucker's route running still isn't clean or crisp. However, I think he's wrong on Jack Best and Jalen Naylor. To me, Best looks more like Cooper Cup, while Naylor is more likely to be the Z, JSN role, while Brock Bowers is lined up in line. Again, just kind of a springboard to hop into what we're gonna talk about here, because I just wanna hit on these guys real quickly. I have these people in order of impact, the people I think that are gonna make the most impact in the 2026 season. I think Trey Tucker has the most likely chance to be a 1,000 yard wide receiver on this team. Do I think it's likely? No. Do I think it's possible? Yes. Last year, he had dang near 700 yards in games where it wasn't really competitive, so we weren't really airing it out that much toward the end. And the quarterback play was horrible. He's going to see the best quarterback play, the best offensive line play, the best running back play, that he's seen since he's been in the league. And I think he's going to benefit massively from it. He might not be the best route runner on the team, I don't disagree with that, but he's definitely the fastest guy. And he might be the strongest guy for his size, besides Ashton Gente and the entire locker room. And there was a reason why he was the only wide receiver who didn't suit up for the game. Jack Besch, I think his strong suit is blocking, so he's gonna be out there springing a lot of runs for Ashton Gente and Brock Bowers, or excuse me, Ashton Gente and Mike Washington. The reason why I still believe in Jack Besch and why I think he can have a better impact than Jay Lenaylor is the blocking, and also because I just think when you see him on the field, he seems like a comfortable NFL wide receiver, and I think with him specifically, you need someone who knows how to utilize him. Where I think Jay Lenaylor can maybe thrive, thrive, you know, six to 700 yards in any offense, because he's just a more gifted natural athlete. I think Jack Besch needs someone to utilize him, and I think Link Kubiak is going to be able to do that. Obviously, you have Jay Lenaylor. I think Jay Lenaylor can have a Nelson Aguilar-type season for us, where he comes in as the vet, the guy who was underutilized in a different spot, and reaches different heights. But again, none of these wide receivers are really jumping out as like, you're gonna be a star one day, and we know that. We have Brock, we have Ashton. That's gonna be our bread and butter. We just need guys to be able to fill up the void. It's the money ball mentality. Does he get on base? Does he catch the ball? And right now, Malik Benson, through two games, showed an ability to catch the ball, and not catch the ball. I'm not going to undo everything that happened with Malik Benson this offseason, because he dropped a couple passes. One of them was a good play by the defender, the peanut till met the ball out of his hands. But he needs to clean that up, and in the preseason, now's the time to do so. But Steve Smith saying he's a better outrunner than Trey Tucker, I think it does show a lot. He kind of reminds me of Michael Crabtree when he's out on the field. And then lastly, the 2027 draft is where I think they're planning to get their wide receiver. If things don't go super well this year, and they're drafting in the top seven, you're gonna be able to get a Jeremiah Smith or a Cam Coleman like that. Somebody else will also appear out of the woodworks, and push to be a top 10 wide receiver. So I think this video did a pretty good job of kind of explaining exactly what I mean in terms of, yeah, we could have added somebody, but it doesn't fit the timeline right away, and there have been multiple, multiple rebuilds that have shown you, you don't start with a number one wide receiver with your quarterback. You start with the quarterback, you develop the run game and the offensive line, and then you move on from there. So that's gonna be it for me today for video number one. I'm pretty sure there's gonna be two videos coming out today. Shout out to my five and $10 Patreon YouTube members. I forgot to put Zipper in here, who joined 10 days ago, and also Richard Westbrook. Shout out to you for becoming a YouTube member. I'm gonna put these in right now after I finish recording this. If you want to become a YouTube member, five or $10 patron, all that's linked in the description below. 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