James Jones did what Oakland Raiders needed him to do

The Oakland Raiders might as well blow up their entire wide receiver corps in the offseason and go after big additions in the draft and free agency, because they received absolutely nothing from the position last season. Playing the promising Brice Butler more often would have helped, but, alas, the only legit contributor to the passing offense at WR was notable free agent signing James Jones. While Jones offered next to nothing after the catch and mostly relied on garbage-time TDs to buoy his stats, he was still a reliable target in the Raiders offense and the only wideout with significant playing time worth praising.

There’s no doubt that the Raiders need to make sweeping upgrades at the wide receiver position to help out promising rookie quarterback Derek Carr in his second season, and they certainly have the cap space and draft ammunition to do it. Per Advanced Football Analytics, the Raiders had just two wide receivers with catch rates of at least 60%: Butler and Jones, with the former Green Bay Packers WR posting a crisp 65.8% catch rate. Carr’s completion percentage was just 58.1%, but when you have someone like Andre Holmes posting a catch rate below 50%, then you know you have issues at the position.

Juxtaposing Jones’s stats with Holmes’s numbers brings out plenty of contrast, and it either highlights Jones’s reliability or Homles’s frustrating inconsistency. There’s not much doubt that Holmes has more raw talent, but Carr had a QB Rating of just 77.8 when throwing it to his No. 2 wideout. Per Pro Football Focus, only five qualifying wide receivers in the league caused their quarterbacks to have a lower QB Rating when targeting them. Meanwhile, Jones was 18th among the 50 qualifiers in WR Rating, as Carr had a 98.8 QB Rating when targeting Jones.

The problem is that while Jones did a nice job of moving the chains for the Raiders, he was not efficient. I mean, the offense as a whole was inefficient, as Carr averaged just 5.5 yards per pass attempt in a frustratingly conservative offense. Jones had the lowest yards per reception on the team at 9.1, yielding an average of just six yards per target. But if you look at PFF’s yards per route run, he was one of the NFL’s least efficient receivers if you replace targets for routes run.

It’s hard to evaluate wide receivers properly when they play in such a nickel-and-dime offense, but it’s clear that Jones couldn’t do anything after the catch with just 2.9 yards after the catch per reception. His value to the Oakland Raiders derived from his ability to move the chains and avoid makings mistakes. Interestingly enough, Jones used to be known for his drops back when he played for the Packers, but he dropped just four passes last season and has the NFL’s 12th-lowest drop rate. That’s excellent, and it’s no wonder why Carr made him his most targeted wide receiver.

With 73 receptions for 666 yards and six touchdowns, Jones’s numbers look devilishly average, and you can’t help but wonder if he would do better if asked to do more. I know he spent his best years benefiting from the elite Aaron Rodgers, but it’s interesting to note that Jones never averaged less than 12 yards per reception in a season before 2014, and he averaged an excellent 13.9 yards per reception during his career with the Packers. Product of Rodgers? I mean, some of that has to be attributed to his past QB, but it’s a positive sign that he was able to morph his game to the Raiders liking.

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Going forward, the Raiders have three wide receivers with some promise. Restricted free agent Rod Streater was a bright spot last season, Jones showed that he can be a useful WR2 or WR3 in this offense, and Butler showed that he has enough talent to deserve another look. As for Holmes, he has all the tools, but his inconsistency makes him a WR4 with high upside.

The Raiders desperately need a true No. 1 receiver and should look to add another weapon on top of that, but they also need to let Carr loose in his second season, because you can’t make any strong conclusions about the wide receivers after what was truly a weird statistical year for the Raiders offense.

James Jones will be 31 when he enters the 2015 regular season, and he is on an affordable contract until it runs out in 2017. He won’t give the Raiders any sort of playmaking ability, but he showed in the past that he can stretch the field a little bit, and I don’t think all of that has been sapped out by age. As a receiver, he’s theoretically still just before his decline stage, and the Raiders should get some decent seasons out of him before his contract runs out. Jones isn’t anything to write home about, but he gave the Raiders a decent season when they needed some level of consistency and competence at WR.

None of that money is guaranteed now that Jones is out of the first year of his contract, but I don’t think he’s in a position where it would make sense to cut him. If he starts to exhibit true decline before his contract runs out, then the Raiders can safely get rid of him.

Mass changes in the Raiders wide receiver corps need to happen this offseason, but I’d imagine that Jones is a part of the future after catching 70 passes and not making many mistakes.Since the Raiders wanted Carr to avoid mistakes as a rookie, Jones’s veteran savvy was critical. The Raiders approach will gradually change as they let Carr loose, but it’s too early to give Jones the axe after a quality-but-not-great first season in Oakland. He did everything the team asked him to, and that’s a big key with a rookie QB at the helm.

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