High praise for Hunter

Defensive coordinator Gus Bradley might have found a new free safety if he needs one in an emergency situation.

Wide receiver Hunter Renfrow made one of the best defensive plays of the season when he came up from his deep spot as punt returner and broke up a pass on a fake punt against the Chargers to give the Raiders possession.

“That’s a perfect strike-zone tackle, head up and everything,” Bradley said.

Apparently, Renfrow had been lobbying to take some reps on defense.

“He mentioned to me a couple weeks ago that if we needed a free safety in a pinch, (he’d be available),” Bradley said with a laugh. “When I saw that, I thought ‘He wasn’t lying.’ He’s just a good overall football player. It’s not surprising just the way he understands the game so well. He’s great for a coach to have that security back there to know if you need it that he kind of fixes things.”

As for Renfrow’s more customary role on offense, coordinator Greg Olson is in no danger of not having him fulltime on that side of the ball.

Renfrow has scored in consecutive games using essentially a triple-move that was invented on the practice field. Now that the unique route is on film and being scouted, Olson said the Raiders have options.

“He developed it off what originally was a double move. Now it’s a triple,” Olson said.

“So now you go back to maybe just running the singular move. We like to do things that look the same to the defense, but are different. If we can kind of give them the similar looks, but give them something different off of it, then we are doing the right things. He’s a guy that’s been able to master some of those inside slot moves.”