He came to Oakland with a lot of labels, and though Michael Crabtree might have surprised most people by how well he is playing for the Raiders, there is one East Bay observer who predicted that the former 49ers receiver would have a career year.

Cal head coach Sonny Dykes recruited Crabtree when he was the receivers coach at Texas Tech, and he had to fight to get him. He had to out-sell someone from his own school: basketball coach Bobby Knight.

“He was a special talent on the basketball court,” Dykes said. “He could do everything. He could shoot, incredible athlete. And he was highly, highly, highly competitive. That was probably the best thing about Mike is that he competed incredibly hard all the time.”

Though Crabtree was labeled as aloof and a diva during his six years with San Francisco, Raiders coaches and players have seen nothing but what Dykes saw: a hard-hat who punches in, leads by example and helps teammates — like rookie wideout Amari Cooper — get better.

All while being particularly productive.

Crabtree has 40 catches for 483 yards and three touchdowns. That’s a career-high pace for the 28-year-old, who had 85 catches for 1,105 yards for the 49ers in 2012.

“I just do what I have to do,” he said. “I let all the talk, they can just keep talking. But when you turn that film on, you can see some guys getting after it. All I know is go do what you’re supposed to do and the film will show it.”

The surprising Raiders (4-3) aren’t much on talk, and some players appreciate Crabtree more for how dogged he is at blocking for running backs than for what he brings to the passing game.

“Watch Michael Crabtree block on the edges,” tight end Lee Smith told 95.7 FM. “Just watch that for one game and that will show how dedicated this team is to having each other’s backs.”

The Raiders didn’t know Crabtree would be this good, on the field or in the locker room, when they signed him to a one-year deal in April. But as head coach Jack Del Rio said, they didn’t know he wouldn’t be, either.

“What we do is we start with a blank slate,” Del Rio said. “Guys have an opportunity to express themselves and make their mark here. We’re not dragging anything in the past — good or bad — forward.

“He’s been a great teammate. We ask them to bring us whatever leadership skills they have. He’s done a great job expressing that.”

Crabtree has made coaches and young teammates notice his examples all season, from being the first receiver to accept quarterback Derek Carr’s invitation to a summer workout in Bakersfield, to coming back in the game and playing hurt Week 4 at Chicago, to his blocking, to running through tacklers on Sunday’s 36-yard touchdown against the Jets.

“He’s giving it up, just like in Chicago when he battled his way back out onto the field,” Del Rio said. “His ankle was — that was a pretty good shot he took and he fought his way back into the game and played well. So when you get an example of guys doing that — Charles Woodson — guys that are playing with toughness, playing through things, doing it for their teammates, that’s a great message for all our players.”

Cooper, in a two-man race with St. Louis running back Todd Gurley for Rookie of the Year, called Crabtree “a mentor.”

“He’s showed me different ways to get open, how you beat certain coverages, how to use your hands,” Cooper said.

Crabtree calls Cooper his little brother and said his leadership role is no big deal.

“I feel like that’s what I’m supposed to do,” he said. “The knowledge I’ve gained over the years, seven years in, I’ve done seen it all. NFC championships, postseason stats … but they don’t talk about that.”

Crabtree has been soaking in the knowledge ever since Dykes started recruiting a 6-foot-1 high school quarterback out of Dallas and telling him he could be a great receiver.

“Mike always wanted the ball in his hands,” Dykes said.

Crabtree has big hands, some of the best in the game, and they work well with the rest of his body.

“He’s got great concentration. He was able to focus on catching the ball despite getting hit, despite distractions, tipped balls, all that stuff,” Dykes said. “What he had as well was great body control. Could really adjust to balls, whether they were thrown low, behind him. He could really contort his body and get his hands in position to give himself an opportunity to catch the ball.”

Dykes thought the transition to receiver would take about a year.

“It took a month,” Dykes said. “He picked up all the nuances really quickly. He’s a really smart guy.”

Back to Gallery Raiders’ Michael Crabtree adapts, leads and succeeds 2 1 of 2 Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle 2 of 2 Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle



The transition to the Raiders was similarly smooth. Crabtree was a little hurt by the lack of interest on the free-agent market in the spring, and friends said he had something to prove.

He’ll be much more in demand, if he continues his current pace, in free agency next year. But, as Dykes said, Crabtree is a smart guy and there is no reason to talk about that stuff in November.

So, when a reporter asked after the game if Crabtree has thought about what he’ll do after this season, Crabtree treated him like a Jet.

“Naw, one game at a time,” he said. “Ya’ll are going too far. We still got nine games left, right?”

Yes, the rest of the season remains, one that his teammates hope is full of more Crabtree touchdowns, blocks, examples and playoffs-targeted wins.

“I would love ‘Crab’ to be here for a long time,” Carr said.

Chronicle columnist Scott Ostler contributed to this report.

Vic Tafur is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: vtafur@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VicTafur