Seth Roberts makes for an interesting wide receiver target

The Oakland Raiders just released Seth Roberts for good financial reasons, but he still has surprising value as a well-rounded option for other teams.

The Oakland Raiders did what they needed to do.

When the Raiders released wide receiver Seth Roberts on Thursday, Jon Gruden and company saved themselves $4.8 million on the books without an ounce of dead cap space penalties. Given that Roberts was, for the Raiders, a fourth or fifth best wideout, the move was not only predictable but necessary.

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For the Raiders, the release of Roberts was the final transaction in a full-on renovation of the team’s wide receiver corps. Amari Cooper? Traded. Jordy Nelson? Released. Brandon Lafell? Hit free agency. Martavis Bryant? Floating somewhere in suspension purgatory. In their place are imports like Antonio Brown, Tyrell Williams and Ryan Grant. Only Dwayne Harris remains from last year’s depth chart.

As a Raider, Roberts was overvalued. As a free agent, Roberts is an interesting value.

If you’ve watched the Raiders closely over the last few years, you’ll know Roberts as a feel-good story turned useful veteran. A former undrafted free agent out of West Alabama, Roberts has caught 158 passes for 13 touchdowns over the last four seasons for the Raiders.

Roberts developed a reputation early in his career for being a savvy receiver underneath who could help move the chains. Unfortunately he also earned a rep for dropping passes. The stats backed it up with 16 total drops during his first two years in the league. Since then, however, Roberts has cleaned up his act, to his credit, and had only 3 drops last season.

Roberts has only two fumbles in his entire career, both coming during the 2017 season, and he’s raised his catch rate from 49.4% in 2016 to a career-best 70.3.% in 2018. What doesn’t get enough press is one of the most under-appreciated aspects of Roberts game: his strong blocking ability.

No matter the reason for his motivation, Roberts has done the work to turn himself into a well-rounded receiver with no glaring weaknesses. He’s worked on his catch/drops issues. He’s an asset without the ball in his hands and he’s a reliable outlet as a quarterback works down his list of options.

All of this, to me, seems interesting for a team like the Chiefs. Sammy Watkins and Tyreek Hill are entrenched as the star receivers on the outside. Demarcus Robinson is back for another run, but the Chiefs have lost Chris Conley to the Jacksonville Jaguars and De’Anthony Thomas is rehabbing a fractured leg as a free agent.

If the Chiefs wanted to wait until after the draft to see how the board fell to them, Roberts could be worth a look in an offense that’s missing this sort of asset. The only downside is that Roberts has played on special teams very sparingly, and even that was years ago for the Raiders. Given his blocking ability, you’d think he might be a strong performer for Dave Toub if tasked with such responsibilities.

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Given how hard he’s worked on other areas of his game, it’s certainly not out of the question.

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