HENDERSON, Nev. — Toward the end of his rookie season, receiver Tre Tucker realized that he was farsighted, which made it more difficult to see things if they were close to his eyes. While he still had an OK year with 19 catches for 331 yards and two touchdowns, he thought he’d be much better if he improved his vision. So, this offseason, he had LASIK eye surgery. He said it’s helped improve his depth perception.

“It’s a huge difference,” Tucker said Monday. “You’re able to look at the ball faster.”

Tucker has had an up-and-down training camp, but he flashed in the preseason opener against the Minnesota Vikings last week with two catches for 73 yards. He’s vying to step into a larger role this season after mostly coming off the bench in 2023.

“That was probably the smartest thing he’s ever done is get LASIK eye surgery,” receiver Davante Adams said Monday. “You can tell he’s a lot more confident catching the ball. Playing this position, that has something that’s not even on your mind. You need to just think about making the play, not, ‘Hopefully I catch this ball.’ I’ve seen his confidence in his hands. And you can feel a person’s confidence as they progress and get better at a specific part of their game. So, to watch the evolution of him and to know his mentality, he’s a very driven young player. He’s doing all of the things right right now to put himself in position to keep getting better.”

Tucker has the size of a slot receiver at 5-foot-9, 185 pounds, but he spent most of his snaps lined up as an outside receiver last year. He expects to do the same this year but, much like Adams and fellow receiver Jakobi Meyers, he sees value in being able to line up both inside and outside.

“With all three of us, we kind of play everywhere,” Tucker said. “There’s really no slot receiver. The majority of the time, you’ll see me outside just because of my skill set and what I can do. I feel comfortable anywhere. That’s the value that us three — me, Jakobi and Tae — bring that we’re versatile enough to be able to play inside or play outside. People can’t just key in on, ‘Well, he’s lining up here.'”

Tucker is hard on himself, but he said he doesn’t allow the negative plays to shake his confidence. The 23-year-old is confident he’s primed to make a Year 2 leap.

“At the end of the day, being a receiver, if the ball touches your hands you should catch it,” Tucker said. “Knowing the amount of work that I put in and knowing how I feel about myself, it gets frustrating, but it doesn’t down me because I know what I can do. … It doesn’t weigh on me. … I know the steps that I took this offseason and I know what I’m going to do.”