Williams eager for Raiders to let it fly
During a 7-on-7 portion of the Raiders’ first offseason practice Tuesday, quarterback Derek Carr loosed a deep, arcing throw that landed in the arms of receiver Tyrell Williams, who had beaten the coverage downfield for a would-be touchdown.
“It’s nice to hit that on the first day,” Williams said afterward. “Hopefully we’ve got a lot more coming like that.”
The Raiders’ offseason overhaul at receiver, which included the addition of Williams, indicates that’s the idea.
The deep pass was not a prominent part of the Raiders’ offense last season. Per NFL.com, the Raiders’ average throw to a receiver traveled a league-low 9.3 yards in the air. Carr averaged 6.7 air yards per target overall in 2018, tied for
the league’s lowest mark.
Of Oakland’s additions at receiver this offseason, Antonio Brown has averaged 1,524 receiving yards over the past six seasons; Williams, 27, has averaged 16.3 yards per catch in four NFL seasons, and JJ Nelson has averaged 17.8 yards per catch in his four-year career.
Coming off a season in which a tight end ( Jared Cook) and running back ( Jalen Richard) tied for the team lead in receptions, the Raiders are targeting a more aggressive passing game in 2019, head coach Jon Gruden said last week.
“A lot of football today is run-pass options where you stretch the (defense) laterally, running bubble screens and fly sweeps, but you’ve also got to stretch them vertically,” Gruden said. “If you can stretch the field vertically and horizontally, you become a much more difficult offense to defend. And that’s a goal that we have had here as we put together our team.”
While Brown is at the center of that goal, Williams, whom the Raiders signed to a four-year deal reportedly worth up to $47 million in March, could be both a key factor and beneficiary.
He’s a big target (6-foot-4, 205 pounds) and has also shown big-play ability with an NFL-leading four touchdown catches of 75-plus yards since 2015.
That combination, it seems, already has taken some Raiders defensive backs by surprise. The Raiders on Thursday posted a video on social media following secondary coach Jim O’Neil at practice that included an exchange between O’Neil and Williams.
“All the DBs are like, ‘Man, 16 can run,’ ” O’Neil tells Williams. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, you’d better get your hands on him.’ ”
“Everybody thinks that I can’t run,” Williams replies.
Williams was rarely the focus of the Chargers’ passing game, which featured top wideout Keenan Allen, among others. With Allen sidelined by a knee injury in 2016, Williams enjoyed his most productive season. He led the Chargers with 69 receptions for 1,059 yards and caught seven touchdown passes.
Before becoming a free agent this spring, Williams, who had 653 receiving yards last season, told reporters, “I definitely feel like I’m a No. 1 receiver.” He then signed with a Raiders team that had already traded for a clear-cut No. 1 in Brown.
Rather than a hindrance, though, Williams said he saw potential in joining Brown in the Raiders’ offense.
“It’s vertical,” Williams said. “We like to go down the field, and I feel like that’s one of my strong points is taking and stretching the field, and I think that’ll be big for me. A lot of coverage will go to AB. So I feel like I’ll get a lot of one-on-one coverage down the field.”
Last season, if the Raiders did get those matchups with an underwhelming receiving corps, they often didn’t fully develop. Carr’s average release time of 2.55 seconds on throws was tied for fastest in the NFL and, although reflective of shaky pass protection, fed a perception of Carr as being reliant on quick throws and check-downs.
Carr addressed that with a pinch of sarcasm Tuesday when asked about throwing to Williams.
“Contrary to popular belief, I like throwing it down the field,” Carr said. “We’re pretty good at it here.”
In physical terms, Carr likened Williams to Andre Holmes, who led the Raiders in receiving yards in 2014, Carr’s rookie season.
“It’s kind of nice having somebody like that, but he can run these routes and set people up and knows he’s a technician also,” Carr said. “He’s not just a big, raw body.
“To be able to hit those deep shots, the only thing it’s going to do is help our running backs, it’s going to help our offensive line. So it’s nice to have someone with that skill set.” Matt Kawahara is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mkawahara@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @matthewkawahara