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In the early portion of the year, opposing Tight Ends ate the Raiders' defense up and it was embarrassing, disappointing, and frustrating. Many times it was not even a case of the TE playing well (of course they did), but some terrible linebacker and safety play combined with overall defensive confusion.

The overall stats are unimpressive. Opposing Tight Ends had 880 yards and 10 TDs.

G Tar Rec Yards Avg Long TDs
16 127 76 880 11.6 40 10

Week 1's explosion by Tyler Eifert was expected. But in Week 2 and 3, fans were thinking "The Raiders' defense makes any TE look like an All-Pro."

You'll have to excuse Raiders' fans for saying "Who is Crockett Gillmore?" and "Who is Gary Barnidge?" because each of these relatively unknown TEs had established career days against the Raiders' defense. Gillmore nearly equalled his 2014 output in one game v the Raiders. Barnidge had his finest day in his 7+ years in the NFL! As the year continued, both these TEs ended up proving themselves as above average / very good players.

But Ken Norton Jr and the defense made some adjustments and in the final 13 weeks, they played much better. In the final 13 games, the Raiders held TEs to 10.4 yards per catch, 4.4 better than in Weeks 1-3. More impressively, TE's per game yardage and TD stats dropped by more than 50%. Going from 99 yards and 2 TDs per game to 45 and 0.3.

It's this type of progress that gives the Raiders fans hope.

G TAR REC YARDS AVG TD YPG TDPG
W1-3 3 30 20 297 14.9 6 99 2
w4-17 13 97 56 583 10.4 4 44.8 0.3
Rate Delta 4.4 54.2 (55%) 1.7 (85%)
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