Silver And Black Pride
How wide receiver group develops and improves over the course of this season and beyond is key to Raiders offense
If you shuddered at the notion of another Chicago Bears assistant coach joining the Las Vegas Raiders’ ranks, I don’t blame you.
The most recent Bear-to-Raider coaching conversion didn’t pan out too well as Luke Getsy’s duties as the Silver & Black’s offensive coordinator lasted all of nine games in 2024 as the team face planted and dragged itself to a 2-7 record before the bye week. With Getsy at the helm, the Raiders offense scored 168 total points for an average of 18.6 points per game. After he was axed, Las Vegas churned out 141 total points in the remaining eight games for an average of 17.6 points per contest.
Yuck.
Getsy, Chicago’s and Las Vegas’ former play caller, is now in his third stint with the Green Bay Packers as a senior offensive assistant.
The latest former Bear turned Raider is wide receivers coach Chris Beatty.
His time in the Windy City didn’t overlap with Getsy — Beatty was hired by the Bears as wide receivers boss for the 2024 season — but like the latter, the former was play caller when Chicago canned head coach Matt Eberflus. Beatty became the interim offensive coordinator under interim head coach Thomas Brown (now the passing game coordinator and tight end coach for new New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel).
The Beatty-orchestrated Bears offense scored 69 total points in five games he called plays for an average of 13.8 points per contest.
In Las Vegas, Beatty won’t be calling plays, however.
That job is in offensive coordinator Chip Kelly’s capable hands. But the wide receiver coach will nonetheless play an instrumental role for Kelly and head coach Pete Carroll.
The new regime of general manager John Spytek and Carroll invested a trio of picks in the 2025 NFL Draft at the wide receiver position: Jack Bech (second round, 58th overall), Dont’e Thornton (fourth round, 108th overall), and Tommy Mellot (sixth round, 213th overall). Thus, it’s a relatively young room that needs development and guidance as Jakobi Meyers is the top option in the room coming off an 87-catch, 1,027-yard, four-touchdown 2024 season.
At age 28, Meyers is the second oldest but most experienced NFL wide receiver on the Las Vegas’ roster. Journeyman and practice squad yo-yo Alex Bachman is the oldest wideout at 29 years old, but he’s only accrued two full NFL seasons, in comparison.
“Everything excites me about him. I’ve been watching him from afar for a while,” Beatty said when asked what excites him about working with Meyers during a Q&A on the Raiders website. “All the coaches in this league know who the best players are, who the really good players are. Whether they get the accolades that they should get or not, we all kind of know who’s underrated. He’s one of those guys that is a technician. I’ve been watching him not only...
