The Las Vegas Raiders opened the season with a 3-1 burst, and part of that fast start came from being hard to scout. With Klin Kubiak and his staff bringing a new look to the sideline, opponents spent the early weeks guessing at what Las Vegas wanted to do from one snap to the next.
That edge does not last forever. The Kansas City Chiefs showed last week that the mystery starts to fade once there is enough film on the table.
Even with the offense spreading the ball around, one receiver has steadily climbed into a bigger role: Cody White. The Raiders’ offseason plan was to stock the roster with dependable, low-profile receivers, and White has turned into the one making the biggest impact with his chances.
Veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins said earlier this week that White keeps popping up at the right moments.
“If you watch the tape, there's a good two more opportunities that I felt I missed that would have given him a chance to really impact the game. So, I was kicking myself for those plays, but the ball just has found him. I don't have a great answer for you,” veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins said earlier this week.
Cousins also pointed to the way White attacks the football once it is in the air.
“I think it's just kind of how the pocket allows me to get through the progression, and the ball finds him, and he's attacked the football. I think that's the trait that I would say has jumped off the tape, whether it was the Chargers touchdown or the goal ball last week, just attacking the football and saying, 'Ball's in the air, that's my ball.'"
The connection is not just about what White is doing now. Cousins said he has known about him for a while, going back to White’s time at Michigan State. The two were there at different times, but Cousins has stayed close to the school as an alumnus.
"I think probably going back to watching him at Michigan State a little bit as an alumnus. Seeing him make plays there in the number seven, and then that play against the Chargers where he attacked the football for a touchdown in tight coverage. I thought those traits surfaced, and he's been doing it since,” Cousins said.
White, now a sixth-year veteran, has made the most of a receiver room built to share the workload. Through four games, he has five catches, and three of them have gone for touchdowns in close Raiders wins.
The numbers will not jump off the page for any of Las Vegas’ wideouts, but that is part of the plan. The production is spread out, and the offense is built to make the most of limited opportunities.
That setup has mattered even more with injuries hitting Jack Bech and Jalen Nailor. Their absences have forced the Raiders to ask more from the receivers still standing, and that pressure only grows with a Week 5 matchup against the New England Patriots.
Las Vegas is leaning on what could be the best tight end group in the league to help carry the offense, but the wide receivers still have to hold up their end. And White, who was easier to overlook earlier in the season, is no longer slipping through the cracks.
With Bech and Nailor sidelined, New England is likely to pay closer attention to White than previous opponents did. That leaves him with another opportunity to keep building on a surprising early-season run and, maybe, keep pushing the Raiders’ staff to feature him even more.
In Other News...
Raiders Have Extra Motivation In New England After Incognito's McDaniels Blast
Richie Incognito added another layer to the Raiders' trip to New England by publicly revisiting Josh McDaniels' brief and rocky run in Las Vegas. On a podcast, Incognito said McDaniels treated players poorly during his time with the team, a reminder of how quickly that tenure unraveled before he was fired on Oct. 31, 2023, after 21 months as head coach.
There are only a handful of players left on the current roster who were around for McDaniels' final season, but the memory of that stretch still lingers in the building. Malcolm Koonce is among the holdovers, and his rise after McDaniels' departure stands as one of the clearer examples of how different things looked once the coaching change was made, which helps explain why this matchup carries a little extra edge for some in the locker room. [Read more 🡒]
Raiders Face An Early Prove It Spot In New England
The Raiders head to New England in a spot that already feels more revealing than the calendar suggests. Las Vegas has opened 3-1 and still looks like a team with real early-season credibility, even after a loss to the Chiefs, but the trip to Foxborough comes against a Patriots squad riding the momentum of an upset in Buffalo and trying to turn one statement win into something sturdier.
Oddsmakers have made New England a 3.5-point favorite, a sign the market is giving the Patriots more respect than it did before the weekend. From the Raiders' side, the trip raises familiar questions about whether their offense can control games the way a contender needs to, especially against a defense that is being viewed as one of the league's tougher early assignments. [Read more 🡒]
Maxx Crosby Trade Buzz Puts Raiders At Center Of A Huge Debate
The Cowboys loss to Tampa Bay only turned up the volume on a conversation that has been building around one of the NFLs most disruptive defenders, with Dallas once again short on edge pressure and looking the part of a team that could use help in a hurry. Jerry Jones sounded disappointed afterward, and that frustration has fed the kind of trade chatter that always follows a game like this, especially when a proven pass rusher is sitting on another roster and drawing attention from a team with a glaring need.
For the Raiders, the noise matters because Maxx Crosby is not just a name in speculation, he is the centerpiece of a defense and one of the most recognizable players on the roster. Any idea of moving him would put Las Vegas at the center of a huge debate about where the team is headed and how much it would take to even consider listening, while the talk around Dallas keeps circling the same basic question: how far would the Cowboys go to fix a problem that showed up again on a national stage? [Read more 🡒]