Tyreik McAllister, Raiders Who Boosted Stock With Strong Preseason Showing

The Raiders closed out their 2024 preseason schedule with a 24-24 tie against the San Francisco 49ers. The end result and their final preseason record of 0-2-1 doesn't matter nearly as much as the opportunity for the Raiders to evaluate their roster did.

Head coach Antonio Pierce and general manager Tom Telesco got plenty of opportunity to evaluate players and form their roster over the last few weeks. We got some of their thoughts on Tuesday when they pared the roster down to 53 players by the 4 p.m. ET deadline.

Of course, the biggest decision we saw in the preseason was naming Gardner Minshew the starting quarterback after the second week of the preseason. It's hard to say Minshew really improved his stock. Neither him nor Aidan O'Connell really wowed in the exhibition games.

That wasn't the case for everyone, though.

The Raiders did have a few standout players who legitimately improved their stock by standing out in the preseason games. Here's a look at three of them.

WR Tre Tucker

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Tre Tucker

One of the biggest questions for the Raiders going into the preseason was the depth of the receiver room. Davante Adams is obviously phenomenal and Jakobi Meyers has proven himself as a reliable No. 2.

The depth behind them is largely unproven, though.

Tre Tucker put some of those concerns to rest with his preseason performance. Through the first two weeks of the preseason Tucker had the most receiving yards with 139, three catches on targets with more than 20 air yards and 3.03 yards per route run, per PFF.

It's not a complete surprise that Tucker looked good in the preseason. He did average 17.4 yards per reception as a rookie in 2023 with 331 yards on the season.

The Raiders are going to feature a lot of two receiver sets with tight ends Michael Mayer and Brock Bowers on the roster. The Raiders really don't have to have the deepest receiver room in the league.

Tucker's strong preseason shows that they can be an effective 11 personnel team as well, though. His deep speed and ball tracking should be a useful weapon if he can continue this momentum into the regular season.

WR/KR Tyreik McAllister

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Tyreik McAllister

Tyreik McAllister's inclusion on the Raiders' initial 53-man roster is a testament to how important preseason games can be for a player.

The competition for the last few wide receiver roster spots was fierce. Veteran Jalen Guyton was cut and Kristian Wilkerson was also let go. McAllister's preseason performance likely had something to do with that.

The 26-year-old former running back scored twice in the preseason finale. The most notable was an 81-yard punt return touchdown to go with his 35-yard touchdown reception.

McAllister showed that he could take over the team's return duties. That was likely what gave him an opportunity in Raiders camp in the first place. He was signed from the CFL where he was a special teams standout for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He led the league in kick return average and had seven missed field goal returns for 408 yards and a touchdown.

He can obviously find the open seam as a punt returner, but the league's new kickoff return rules could give him an opportunity to have even more impact on a game.

Edge Janarius Robinson

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Janarius Robinson

Maxx Crosby played 95 percent of the defensive snaps last season. It was his second consecutive year of playing more than 1,000 snaps at a position where even the best players are typcially out for at least 10-15 percent of the plays.

While Crosby's durability and endurance are admirable, the Raiders have to find ways to get him off the field and preserve him for the long haul.

It would help if some of the Raiders depth pieces would step up.

That's exactly what it looked like Janarius Robinson was ready to do in the preseason finale against the Niners. With one last opportunity to claim a roster spot he earned the highest PFF grade of any Raiders defender, per Matt Holder of Silver and Black Pride.

Robinson had six total pressures but also showed up in the box score with a tackle for loss and six pressures on just 15 pass-rush snaps.

The fourth-year veteran has just six games of NFL experience since being drafted in the fourth round of the 2021 draft. Poor play and injuries ended his stints with the Minnesota Vikings and Ealges, but he started to make headway as a reclamation project with the Raiders last season.

He appears to be making progress toward becoming a contributing player and the Raiders could use that kind of player right now.