The Raiders will meet with tight end Luke Willson on Friday, according to Adam Caplan of SiriusXM (on Twitter). The former Lions and Seahawks receiver could help the Raiders replace Jared Cook, who left in free agency to sign with the Saints. 
Willson, 29, hooked on with the Lions last year on a one-year, $2.5MM deal. Unfortunately, the contract was not the platform to free agent riches that he envisioned. Willson finished out with just 13 catches for 87 yards and no touchdowns, a dropoff from his already modest offensive numbers.
Blocking is Willson’s true calling card and he placed as the league’s No. 17 ranked run-blocking tight end last season, according to Pro Football Focus. All in all, he had 424 snaps on offense and 124 on special teams.
Because every team needs 3 blocking tight ends smh lol
Lee Smith is 31 and makes $3 mil/yr. It never hurts to look at potentially younger, cheaper options does it?
Also the problem with the Raider’s tight ends last season was that which ever one was in made the play calling too obvious. If Lee was in, it was probably a run. If Jared was in, it was probably a pass. Not saying Luke Wilson is the final answer, but having a guy who blocks very well but is also more of a receiving threat than Lee would be nice.
I completely agree with you there, I don’t think people are going to take Luke Wilson as a passing threat seriously and respect the run game though. And he might not even beat out Derek carrier. And they shouldn’t have gone out and moved up Lee Smith’s bonus last year (only save 1.8m against the cap now). If they cut him, they pissed away money just like with Jordy by moving up his bonus. And their primary receiving tight end has 18 career catches in 3 years and can’t block, so they’re just kinda setting themselves up for the same situation you mentioned imo.
And at the very least it’s short sided & poor cap management
Commitment To Excellence!
loved him in bottle rocket
Raiders making a ton of head scratching moves lately. Not sure which direction they are trying to go but maybe that’s what they want. “we don’t know what kind of team we want to be so let’s make sure no other teams know either”