Back to Basics: Renfrow looks to rebound from underwhelming 2022 campaign

The drive from Las Vegas to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, covers 2,330 miles and 34 hours, giving Hunter Renfrow plenty of time to contemplate his future as he pondered his past.

He’d remained in Sin City during the NFL’s last two offseasons, but this one required a reconnection with his roots.

As the Raiders receiver would say last week at the start of his fifth training camp with the franchise, “I went back home and just got back to the fundamentals, back to the basics, back to why you love the game.

“The biggest thing for me that I learned through all of it was just to control what I can control,” he added. “And just to go out there and have a great day and have a great practice and take it one day at a time, one rep at a time, one route at a time and have that kind of singular mindset. And then let everything else take care of what’s going to happen next. And so, that’s really what I’ve taken from that.”

Renfrow is ready to star again from the slot and rebound from an underwhelming 2022 campaign, during which he lost seven games to injury and his standing among the NFL’s elite that he’d earned in 2021 with 103 catches for 1,038 yards and nine touchdowns.

His production that year helped propel the Raiders to the NFL’s postseason with a 10-7 record and helped him earn a two-year contract worth $32 million.

But he was concussed last year in Week 2 during a 29-23 loss to the Arizona Cardinals in which he fumbled away the game-winning touchdown and never found his footing as the Raiders finished 6-11.

He finished 2022 with career lows of 36 receptions for 330 yards and two touchdowns, also enduring an abdominal injury and his first stint on injured reserve.

Said Raiders coach Josh McDaniels: “Anytime you have a player that battles through a bunch of the injuries that Hunter did last year and the stuff that prevented him from being on the field, you have some extra motivation as a coach to see it through and make sure that he comes back and has the type of season he’s capable of having.

“We can’t predict anything, but I know what Hunter is capable of. I know what he means to our team,” he added. “I know how excited he is to perform well and try to help us win, and that’s what we’re geared towards too.”

‘I’m in a lot better place’

So far so good for the 27-year-old Clemson alumnus, whose fleet feet and refined routes have flummoxed Raiders defensive backs thus far throughout training camp. They made the 5-foot-10-inch Renfrow a standout in college and with the Raiders, creating crevices in coverage that he’d often exploit: first as a rookie for 49 catches and 605 yards and again in 2020 for 56 catches and 656 yards.

He was featured in 2021 and allowed the freedom to occasionally improvise, to read and react and counter cornerbacks with fakes and pivots before turning upfield or toward the boundary.

“It was just a natural fit,” receivers coach Edgar Bennett said in 2021 of Renfrow. “He fit in. Had a really good understanding for our scheme, our techniques that we use, and he’s put his own spin on things and it really makes them come to life.”

But the coaching staff would change and with it the scheme, leaving Renfrow to adjust to the demands of McDaniels.

Slot receivers in his offenses — a la Wes Welker, Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola — have long been among the league’s most productive, though without a mastery of the scheme, he did not have the freedom to freelance the way he had in his previous seasons.

The concussion also prevented Renfrow from practicing and playing in Weeks 3 and 4, and he was hardly a factor upon his return in Week 5.

He’d catch 11 passes in the ensuing four games and miss five after that with an injured abdomen.

Renfrow said he felt like he disappointed his teammates.

“That’s something that left a bad taste in my mouth and something that I want to get over and prove to them through the spring and also going into the season that I’m a guy that they can count on and that’s going to be consistent this offseason,” he added.

“I didn’t necessarily have a lot of fun last year. And so, that’s my big thing for this year, is to find ways to have fun and not really care about the outside noise and just go out there and go in with my teammates and find a way to have a blast.”

Refreshed upon returning from South Carolina, Renfrow’s teammates this season include Jakobi Meyers, DeAndre Carter and Philip Dorsett, offseason additions to the receiving core that complement him and perennial All-Pro wideout Davante Adams.

Renfrow has already made a favorable impression on Meyers, formerly the No. 1 receiver for the New England Patriots and the likely No. 2 in Las Vegas opposite Adams.

“Man, he’s crafty, not even just physically but like mentally too,” Meyers said. “The way he put routes together or thinks about routes before he even runs them, it’s a unique skill set. Another one of those guys who earned every compliment he’s gotten.”

Perhaps the compliment from Meyers is in part a reflection of Renfrow’s advanced understanding of McDaniels and the role the Raiders know he’s capable of playing.

He’s proven to be productive when he’s healthy and happy, absent the struggles of learning a brand new system.

Exactly how he began training camp late last month.

Hopefully, for the Raiders, that’s also how he’ll start the season next month.

“I mean, just from the spring and the verbiage and going through these first few days of camp, these first few installs, everything is so much more smooth, so much more familiar.” Renfrow said. “And the guys are familiar, the coaching staff is familiar in how they coach.

“And so, I feel like I’m in a lot better place than I was this time last year.”

Contact Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.