The Oakland Raiders were without two of their top three wide receivers in week one, and it showed. Darren McFadden caught almost three times as many passes as the next best for the Raiders with 13. That is because the San Diego Chargers did a good job of shutting down deeper routes, leaving Carson Palmer with primarily short yardage options like McFadden. But that is not surprising considering the fact that due to injuries, the Raiders were forced to start an undrafted free agent rookie at wide receiver. That's not a dig at Rod Streater, who has played very well in the pre season and minus the fumble, had a solid game in his NFL debut, but he is still not a starting caliber wide receiver and did not play at the level of a Jacoby Ford or Denarius Moore.
With Ford out for a long time, and potentially the season, that raises an obvious question, how big of an impact can Denarius Moore actually have on a Raiders offense that looked just plain bad without him. The only way to tell for sure is by seeing what happens on Sunday, but speculation is always a fun option.
Theoretically, Moore will have an impact on the Raiders offense even if he does not catch a single ball. Last week, the Chargers were able to focus on the only real big threat in the passing game with Darrius Heyward-Bey, who was held to three catches. Plus, defenses have to respect his speed and big play capabilities. Moore is the kind of player who demands the attention of a defense and a defensive coordinator because they need to be aware of where he is on every play. Adding another threat alone will force defenses to deal with more and allow other receivers to get free more often.