Veteran receiver Michael Crabtree signed with the Raiders last week and is participating in a voluntary minicamp that runs through Thursday.
He’s the only receiver added in unrestricted free agency, and there’s solid interest regarding his contributions this season. Crabtree will undoubtedly discuss his decision to move up from the 49ers in Santa Clara to the Raiders when media has player access on Thursday.
Head coach Jack Del Rio addressed Crabtree’s addition on Monday afternoon, the eve of the Raiders’ first on-field activity this offseason.
“It’s great to have Michael on board,” head coach Jack Del Rio said Monday in an interview with 95.7-FM in San Francisco. “Obviously, he’s a guy that’s been a productive player on a real good team the last several years and comes in here eager to join our organization and become a good teammate and to find his way and create a role for himself. So, he’s a guy that has an outstanding catching radius, a real good understanding of how to get himself open and find some of the soft spots in a defense. He knows how to go up and make the contested catch and those kinds of things. We feel good about being able to acquire Michael.”
Crabtree had a down year in 2014, but still recorded 68 catches for 698 yards and four touchdowns. He tore an Achilles’ tendon in 2013 and played just five games that year. The previous season was his best, assembling 85 receptions for 1,105 yards and nine touchdowns in 2012.
