Silver And Black Pride
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.”
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.
By The Numbers
Jack Bech, Wide Receiver
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...
