Oakland Raiders: Mistake picking Jordy Nelson over Michael Crabtree?

Are the Oakland Raiders making a mistake by bringing in Jordy Nelson and cutting Michael Crabtree? We examine the moves Jon Gruden is making…

Jon Gruden wants to party like it’s 1998 with the Oakland Raiders, and apparently, Reggie McKenzie wants to kick it back to his Green Bay Packers days.

The Raiders are reportedly signing wide receiver Jordy Nelson, and as a corresponding move, they will release wide receiver Michael Crabtree.

Are they making a mistake?

First, let’s take a look at Nelson.

Nelson will be 33 years old in May, and is coming off of the worst season of his worst, non-injury shortened season since 2010 when he hadn’t yet emerged as a star receiver in the NFL, and only started four games.

Now, some of his poor production this past season was due to the Packers’ own injuries at quarterback, but Nelson caught a career-low 60.2 percent of the passes thrown his direction. He ended up with 53 receptions for 482 yards and six touchdowns.

Back in 2015, Nelson suffered a season-ending injury and missed the entire year. He came back in 2016 at the age of 31 and looked like himself again, putting up Pro Bowl caliber numbers, but he seemed to take a significant step back this past season.

When healthy, I think he can still be a good player, but is it worth cutting Crabtree to do so?

Let’s take a look at Crabtree’s recent history.

Crabtree is entering his age 31 season and has had two seasons with over 1,000 yards in his entire NFL career. This past year with Oakland, he caught just 57.4 percent of the passes thrown his directions, but still finished with eight touchdown catches among his 58 total receptions.

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Crabtree’s 10.7 yards per catch was better than Nelson’s 9.1, and obviously the Raiders aren’t concerned about the two-year age difference, or the fact that Crabtree’s injury history isn’t as extensive as Nelson’s.

The Raiders are banking on Nelson having another year, maybe two, of revived production in Gruden’s offense, and to me, this seems like — at best — a lateral move.

Oakland is getting older at a position, but perhaps the best case scenario with Nelson is to get one year of production out of him like he had at his best in Green Bay.

I don’t think the Raiders are making a huge mistake here, They are going to clear some cap space by cutting Crabtree, and having Nelson gives them some insurance to do so, perhaps even on a discount. He’s been more productive throughout his career, despite Crabtree racking up 27 touchdown catches the past three seasons.

Personally, I would take my chances for the next year or two with Nelson rather than Crabtree.

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