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Nelson Agholor torched the Bills’ defense and coolly cradled a 49-yard rocket of a pass from Derek Carr for a touchdown in the second quarter of Sunday’s game at Allegiant Stadium.
No one was within several yards of the veteran receiver as he waved the ball through the air in the end zone to celebrate. Then he turned around and saw his teammates moving back.
An illegal procedure penalty on tight end Foster Moreau had nullified the score, much to the chagrin of the protesting Carr and Raiders coach Jon Gruden.
“We’ve run that formation a thousand times,” Carr said after the game. “I look over to my right, look to my left, always check for stuff, and nothing looked different. It’s a judgment call, what the refs sees but I’m not complaining about it; it’s over with.”
The controversy, which bubbled into the postgame, overshadowed a larger truth for the Raiders: Agholor, a relatively disregarded free-agent acquisition, has been their best wide receiver through the first quarter of the season. The former Philadelphia Eagle has caught eight of nine targets, most of them in pivotal situations, for 118 yards and two touchdowns.
Agholor is the league’s top-rated receiver with less than 16 receptions by Football Outsiders’ DYAR metric.
In a year where Las Vegas has lost starting receivers Tyrell Williams, Henry Ruggs III and Bryan Edwards to injuries, Agholor has provided premium insurance. The rookies Ruggs and Edwards could conceivably return Sunday when Las Vegas travels to Kansas City, but even if they don’t, there shouldn’t be much of a drop-off in the starting lineup.
“We have a lot of confidence in Agholor,” Gruden said last week. “We’ve said that from the beginning.”
Gruden has indeed hyped Agholor ever since the Raiders signed the 27-year-old, sixth-year pro to a 1-year, $1 million deal in March. Gruden joked at the start of training camp that the Philadelphia Inquirer “will probably say something differently” but that Agholor was still a player who could perform at a high level in the NFL.
Despite having a career year on Philadelphia’s 2017 Super Bowl winning team, Agholor’s time with the Eagles was checkered as many didn’t believe he ever lived up to his billing as first-round draft choice out of USC.
He signed with Las Vegas specifically to play under Gruden. The two have known for each other for more than 10 years, as Agholor was a high school standout in Tampa, Fla., while Gruden coached the Buccaneers in the mid-2000s.
“This is a beautiful opportunity for me to play for a guy like coach Gruden, who has a background in coaching receivers,” Agholor said this summer. “I chose this opportunity to make myself a better player. There’s no better opportunity to play for a coach that knows receiver play. He can articulate ways to get better.”
In training camp, Ruggs may have flashed more with his speed and Edwards with his physicality; Williams a smoother route-runner and Hunter Renfrow surer-handed. But arguably no one seemed to put it all together better than Agholor, who spent the offseason as a regular at Derek Carr’s voluntary throwing sessions.
The same versatility has carried into the season. In his lone week 1 catch, Agholor implored Carr to “just throw it in the end zone” and the 23-yard, over-the-shoulder touchdown grab still belongs in the conversation of the Raiders' best connection of the season.
Against the Saints the next week, Agholor flashed his speed when he prolonged a drive by making a cut and speeding past a defender to convert a third down.
“What you do in practice is what you fall back on come game time,” Agholor said last week. “If you practice every play, every opportunity like a starter and like you’re going to make plays come game time, that’s what you fall back on.”
On the drive where Agholor’s touchdown was wiped off the board last Sunday, he helped ensure the Raiders could still bank points when he dove to get under and grab a third-down pass from Carr. One of the main knocks on Agholor coming into the season was his hands, so if he keeps making catches like that, his stay with the Raiders might not be long because of economic reasons.
This year’s minimum salary represents more than an $8 million pay cut from what he made last year with the Eagles. He’s on his way to repairing his value and commanding a bigger deal next year.
For the Raiders, Agholor has been a bargain.
“Number one goal is to progress as a player,” Agholor said coming into the season. “A lot of things that happened in the past, some really good things and some things that I’ve wanted to grow from. I told myself this opportunity is to be two percent better than the player I was five years ago.”
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.
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