Last season, the Las Vegas Raiders gave a chance to wide receiver Brenden Rice, who is the son of team legend Jerry Rice. Though he was on the practice squad, he didn’t get a chance to play in a regular season game last season.
The Raiders signed him to a Reserve/Futures contract after the season, but recently decided to release him. Luckily for Rice, he was able to land with a new team very quickly. According to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, the Green Bay Packers have claimed Rice off waivers.
This is actually the second former Raiders player the Packers have claimed in the last couple of days, along with cornerback M.J. Devonshire. Rice is actually an interesting player. His father is arguably the greatest wide receiver in NFL history, so the genes are strong.
Rice was a productive player at USC. In two years, he had 84 catches for 1,402. Like his dad, he’s not the fastest player, but he’s got good hands and can run routes. The Packers are about to be his fifth team, so he might not get many more chances. Green Bay has done great work with lesser-known wide receivers. This could be the ideal landing spot for him.
Raiders Need Young WRs to Step Up
On paper, the Raiders have one of the weakest wide receiver rooms in the NFL, but the group does have potential. Jack Bech and Dont’e Thornton were two players who were drafted last year, but didn’t do much as rookies.
Both of them could still be impact players, but they have a lot to prove this season. For his part, general manager John Spytek still believes in Bech and Thornton.
“They’re both big, and they work really hard, and it’s really important to them,” Spytek told reporters before the draft. “They seek people out and look for answers. They look for ways they can get better. They’re always trying to learn, and they work their tails off. It means a lot to both of those guys, and I’ll stand by guys like that.
“Guys who are willing to lay it on the line, exhaust themselves to get better, be vulnerable, ask questions, and take feedback and criticism in a sense. I think you want guys on your team like that because they’re going to get better.”
Don’t Sleep On Tre Tucker
Tre Tucker isn’t a household name yet, but he’s a player the Raiders are really excited about. He’s coming off a career year, and head coach Klint Kubiak singled him out as a player he’s looking forward to working with.
“One guy that sticks out is watching Tre Tucker play football,” Kubiak told reporters recently. “He’s kind of everything that we’re about. Just his play style, how good of a teammate that he is, he’s one of those guys like Maxx. There’s about 25 guys that are there working out with A.J. (Neibel) four days a week, five days a week right now, so there’s already a culture of hard-working guys in our building, and he’s an example of one of them.”
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