Jeff Cumberland

Jace Amaro hopes to drop nothing but points on the Raiders on Sunday.

The rookie tight end’s struggles became one of the stories of the early days of training camp, when Amaro seemed to drop every pass thrown his way. He rectified the problem, though, and drops were not an issue over the final few weeks of the preseason.

“I think it was more of just a confidence thing,” Amaro said. “Overall, it was feeling comfortable with the whole system. Now, I feel comfortable. I can’t really remember the last practice or anything where I had trouble with a couple of drops or anything like that. I feel really smooth out there. I feel good. I feel like my routes are crisp. I feel really comfortable running routes and Geno [Smith] said he feels like it’s night and day since the first day I’ve gotten here.”

Amaro said he won’t start against the Raiders. Jeff Cumberland will. It was an injury to Cumberland in training camp that actually accelerated Amaro’s learning. Cumberland strained his left Achilles’ tendon and missed the team’s second and third preseason games. That allowed Amaro to get more playing time in the games and more reps in practice, the story pointed out.