Jet Starts Slowly but Is Beginning to Take Off : Hester Has Helped the Raiders Bring Back Their Long-Distance Passing Game

The Jet is back, even if the Raiders seem to be hiding the fact by keeping him in the hangar. Nevertheless, within two or three series of the opening kickoff, the doors open and out whooshes Jessie Hester.

Ten catches in 5 games, a 23.6-yards-a-catch average and 3 touchdowns, including game winners against the San Diego Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs--that’s what Al Davis had in mind when he made Hester the Raiders’ No. 1 draft pick from Florida State last season and rushed him into the starting lineup.

The immediate result was half a season of drops. This season, all the talk in training camp was how much better Hester looked, after which the season opened and he dropped a few more. He was also playing hurt. He was also being challenged by Rod Barksdale, who turned in bomb after bomb in the exhibition season plus a 57-yarder for a touchdown in the opener at Denver. The next thing you knew, Hester was being encouraged to let his sore Achilles’ tendon heal fully while Barksdale played.

The next thing after that, the Raiders were 0-3, and Barksdale, whose inexperience far surpasses Hester’s--he never played in a real football game until the one in Denver--was struggling, too. In the second half of the loss to the New York Giants, Hester came back in and caught two short passes, which was significant for two reasons: Hester had returned, and the Raiders had begun taking what defenses were giving.

After that, the Raiders put together the four-game winning streak so, according to Raider custom, all positions have been frozen. Barksdale starts, Hester relieves and plays most of the game. Maybe they think it settles Hester down.

Coach Tom Flores said it gives Hester a chance to look over the defenses, get a sense of the flow, that sort of thing. And besides, that’s the way it’s going to be.

“It does bother me,” Hester said Wednesday. “You want to be a player. You want to get in there at the start of the game and be in there at the finish. It’s a little demoralizing.

“I really get picked up when I go into the game. By watching, I’m not really totally into the game. I can’t see across the field what the defenders are doing. You can see what coverage they’re in but you don’t know what the guy over you is doing.

“But I’m playing well, and we’re winning. That’s why I’m not arguing with it.”

Besides, Hester is soft-spoken and not the type to be calling his coach out. He came into camp a year ago, feeling the pressure of being a No. 1 and acknowledging it.

“Last year was more of a pressure-type situation,” he said. “Being surrounded by a lot of good guys--Marcus (Allen), Todd Christensen, Jim Plunkett, all the All-Pros on defense--I was trying to get up to their caliber of play real quick. I guess I put a lot of pressure on myself.

“I only remember one drop, the Cleveland game, a TD pass I should have had (the Raiders scored a few plays later when Marc Wilson threw to Christensen for the game winner). It was the situation we were in--we were driving, we were behind, it was a clutch-type situation, and I didn’t come up with it. It was a slant. It was up pretty high but I got my hands on it.

“Just that one stayed with me. It followed me for a while, for a good while. I think I learned from it. I think it helped me. The Kansas City game this year was kind of the same situation.”

Drops are the Strike 3s of a receivers’ existence, the inevitable bad news that they have to learn to overcome. They may try to help one another, but in the end, everyone goes out there alone.

“What I do is forget about it,” Raider receiver Dokie Williams said. “I mean, totally blank it out. When we came to the sideline, if he had dropped a pass, the only thing I’d say was, ‘Hey, it’s gone.’ I didn’t even bring it up unless I could tell he was thinking about it.”

Hester said that by season’s end, he learned to take things as they came. His rookie numbers were respectable--32 catches and a 20.8-yards-a-catch average.

But one of the things that happened this summer was Barksdale, the sprinter from Arizona who was signed as a project the year before. He made a huge move in camp. Barksdale is almost as fast as Hester. Receiver coach Tom Walsh thinks the distance would determine the winner in a race. Hester may have a little more speed. Barksdale is bigger--6-0 and 180 to Hester’s 5-10 and 165--and might overtake him as the race got longer.

Then Hester was hurt late in the exhibition season. He tried to go on his sore Achilles’ tendon in Denver, where he dropped a couple of passes early and was finally replaced by Barksdale. The next week, Hester watched all of the Washington loss and hated it.

“Rod was playing excellent,” Hester said. “His opportunity came for him and he did what he had to do, show the coaches he was a player.

“For me, it was frustrating. You don’t know exactly what’s in the coaches’ minds with you being hurt. Are they saying I’m injury-prone? I felt like a nuisance, like I wasn’t helping the team. I just didn’t feel good at all about the situation.”

It changed in a hurry. Two weeks later, he re-charred one of the Chargers’ previously broiled cornerbacks and scored on a 40-yard pass play from Wilson that turned out to be the game winner. Thanks, San Diego, he needed that.

“That was a big moment for me,” Hester said. “I needed to get in the end zone, in a big way, to show the team and the guys around me I am the player that they thought I’d be, that I am a big-play type of guy. It came at the right time.”

The Raiders liked the timing, too. So as soon as they’ve lured those cornerbacks up, and as soon as the Jet has had a chance to look them over, cover your ears. The afterburner with the No. 84 on it is operational once more.

Raider Notes Former Cowboy safety Dexter Clinkscale is scheduled to take a Raider physical Friday. He is supposed to try out with the Chiefs first. . . . Highlights of fullback Frank Hawkins’ appearance at Wednesday’s press breakfast: On his oft-noted fiery comments in the huddle: “I just say what needs to be said, ‘Good job, bad job.’ In some cases, I say, ‘Give the ball to Todd Christensen.’ In some cases, ‘Give the ball to Marcus Allen.’ In some cases, ‘Shut up, both you guys.’ ” . . . Allen and cornerback Mike Haynes are being listed as probable for Sunday’s game at Houston. Neither practiced Wednesday.