Silver Minings: Raiders projected yardage leaders

We’re still a week away from the start of the Las Vegas Raiders training camp and exactly two months away from the first regular-season game, meaning we’re close to watching some Raiders football but are still stuck in ranking and projections season.

Pro Football Focus usually stays busy this time of year, dropping prediction after prediction and their fantasy account shared the site’s yardage expectations for Las Vegas’ skill players.

For Derek Carr, 4,375 yards would be about 430 yards lower than last season’s total but would also be the second-highest of his career for a single season. That would be a similar pace — about 257 yards per game — to his 2020 campaign, where tossed for 4,103 total yards at a rate of about 256 per outing.

Davante Adams’ projection would rank as just his fourth-best and over 300 yards fewer than last year’s total (1,553). Granted, 2021 was a personal best for the former Packer, but he hasn’t posted fewer than 1,300 yards since 2019 when he had 997 in 12 games.

Then there’s the third-down slot machine who is also coming off a career-high yardage total with 1,038 yards last season. However, a 200-yard dip isn’t unreasonable seeing as he 605 and 656 during his first two years in the league, respectively, and Hunter Renfrow will likely see a decrease in targets now that Adams is in town.

As for Darren Waller, he’s the only player on the list who’s projected to surpass his total from a year ago (655), but injuries and a bout with Covid-19 kept him to just 11 games. He flirted with the 1,200-yard mark the two previous seasons, 1,145 in 2019 and 1,196 in 2020.

Of course, projections are nothing more than fancy guesses and there are plenty of external factors that can change the situation, but they at least give us some idea of what to expect from the upcoming season.

In other Raiders links:

• Carr beats Mahomes: the Raiders’ quarterback finished 21st in the American Century golf tournament while the Chiefs’ signal-caller placed 51st.
• Former Raiders still looking for a home: Richie Incognito, Jalen Richard and DeSean Jackson highlight the list for offense, while Carl Nassib, KJ Wright and Gerald McCoy are the notables on defense, via Just Blog Baby’s Brad Weiss.
• Vegas’ roster Nos. 1-5: Levi Damien of Raiders Wire caps off his rankings of the Silver and Black’s roster.
• Top trade candidates: Kevin Knox from Bleacher Report thinks the Raiders could deal a couple of former Patriots and a former top pick before the start of the season.