Jalen Nailor is bringing a unique perspective to the wide receiver position that the Raiders had to value when looking at the free agent WR market
The Raiders’ newest wide receiver can be elite.
With Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza a potential future Las Vegas Raiders QB, Vegas aimed to add a weapon for him in free agency, signing former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Jalen Nailor to a three-year deal.
The three-year, $35 million deal makes Nailor the 34th highest-paid WR in the league based on APY. So, the Raiders clearly believe that Nailor can be a low-end WR1 or high-end WR2. Most importantly, he’s bringing something with him that not many other receivers in his position can—learning from the best receiver in the league, every day for the last four years.
Raiders WR Jalen Nailor learned a ton from Justin Jefferson
“A ton. Just his work ethic day in and day out. He’s never too high or too low. He’s literally the same person every single day. No matter what is going on in his life, he’s always going to have a smile and the joy and laughter throughout the building,” Nailor said when asked how much he’s learned from previous teammates Justin Jefferson. “And just what he does on the field, man. He’s very confident, the way he runs his routes and things like that, that I’ve tried to implement into my game. I’m just trying to do that even better to elevate my game.”
Now, Nailor will be expected to take all of that and use it with the Raiders. And they believe he can be better than he has been, and let me just say, he’s been much better than the basic numbers would tell you.
On 49 targets in 2025, Nailor had just one drop, something that neither he nor Jefferson is known for. When you see the kind of consistency every day from Jefferson, it eventually rubs off on you, and Nailor had a heck of a season, one that was underrated in a way where not many know just how good he was. The yards and touchdowns don’t tell the whole story, even though Nailor did, in fact, lead the Vikings in touchdowns.
Nailor is one of the best WRs in the league at getting first downs, whether it’s after the catch or catching the ball at the sticks. According to Sports Info Solutions, Nailor had the eighth-best first-down percentage in the league at 79.3%. Nailor was also 24th in average depth of target and 22nd in average depth of completion, two stats that really show how much work the receiver is doing every play and a good metric for seeing just how important a receiver is to his team.
Despite being the third guy behind Jefferson and Jordan Addison, he’s in the upper echelon in advanced stats. There are 32 WR1s in the league. Nailor was a WR3 but has advanced stats that place him in the top 24 receivers in the league, despite not having an elite yards metric, as he had just over 440 yards in 2025.
The Raiders may have gotten a steal and the perfect WR for Klint Kubiak’s offense. If he has a breakout season, it’s safe to say he would dedicate some of that to learning from Jefferson.
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