**Official 2018 Oakland Raiders Thread sponsored by Child's Play: Return of Chucky**

[spurraider21]

they introduced him with a hype video and he walked in to the tune of s Bells... and ESPN held a 1 hour slot to air his press conference. most attention the raiders have gotten since they made the superbowl

[spurraider21]

also, more generally, mark davis has been a pleasant surprise as an owner. like his father, has limited pockets (in the context of an NFL owner), but unlike his father, knows little to nothing about football.

- able to work out the raiders relocation as he didn't have the ability to fund a stadium
- despite that, has not been afraid to spend a lot of money on coaches. he's fully committed to seeing the team do well
- has been patient with Reggie McKenzie instead of being over-meddling. he acknowledges that he's not a football mind and acts accordingly
- he has gotten his guys. he wanted reggie mckenzie to run the team... he wanted jack del rio when gruden wasn't an option a few years ago (and JDR did turn the team around from a bottom-dweller)... he wanted Gruden to take them to the next level. he said at the press conference today that ever since his dad died, he had dreamed of uniting McKenzie with Gruden to run the Raiders. took six years, but got it done

[spurraider21]

[IronMexican]

they introduced him with a hype video and he walked in to the tune of s Bells... and ESPN held a 1 hour slot to air his press conference. most attention the raiders have gotten since they made the superbowl

You're forgetting the day Kiffin got fired

[spurraider21]

[AlexJones]

Only the Raiders could pay 100 mil for trash. Shoulda just went after my Matt Patricia

[spurraider21]

Good news: raiders now expected to bring crabtree back, and sounds like gruden wants to keep lynch, who played well last year

Bad news: hearing Gruden say he wants to add some 1998 elements to the offense while basically calling analytics useless (to be fair, was specifically referring to the electronic gps trackers and stuff)... yikes

[Raven]

Good news: raiders now expected to bring crabtree back, and sounds like gruden wants to keep lynch, who played well last year

Bad news: hearing Gruden say he wants to add some 1998 elements to the offense while basically calling analytics useless (to be fair, was specifically referring to the electronic gps trackers and stuff)... yikes

if you like crabtree or not, I'd say 7M is a lot of coin to pay for him.

[spurraider21]

if you like crabtree or not, I'd say 7M is a lot of coin to pay for him.

jarvis landry just got tagged for 16 mil lol

and this is the current FA pool... raiders are already pretty paper thin. after cooper/crabtree they dont really have a good WR. patterson is a good special teams/gadget player but he's not really running routes

Wide Receivers

Jaron Brown
John Brown
Brice Butler
Eric Decker
Bruce Ellington
Michael Floyd
Taylor Gabriel
Jarvis Landry
Cody Latimer
Marqise Lee
Jordan Matthews
Donte Moncrief
Terrelle Pryor
Brian Quick
Paul Richardson
Allen Robinson
Mike Wallace
Sammy Watkins
Albert Wilson
Kendall Wright

not a lot of options there. jags will retain allen robinson. hope pryor bounces back and is a reliable starter? hope decker can be a viable starter to replace crabtree has the chain mover?

[Raven]

jarvis landry just got tagged for 16 mil lol

and this is the current FA pool... raiders are already pretty paper thin. after cooper/crabtree they dont really have a good WR. patterson is a good special teams/gadget player but he's not really running routes

Wide Receivers

Jaron Brown
John Brown
Brice Butler
Eric Decker
Bruce Ellington
Michael Floyd
Taylor Gabriel
Jarvis Landry
Cody Latimer
Marqise Lee
Jordan Matthews
Donte Moncrief
Terrelle Pryor
Brian Quick
Paul Richardson
Allen Robinson
Mike Wallace
Sammy Watkins
Albert Wilson
Kendall Wright

not a lot of options there. jags will retain allen robinson. hope pryor bounces back and is a reliable starter? hope decker can be a viable starter to replace crabtree has the chain mover?

Decker is a lot better imo, but my point is just that there's no way he'd get this money on the open market and the least that should happen, is him taking a pay cut.

[spurraider21]

Decker is a lot better imo, but my point is just that there's no way he'd get this money on the open market and the least that should happen, is him taking a pay cut.

maybe 3 years ago. decker has fallen off a cliff with injuries. to be fair, crabtree is coming off a bad year, too.

[spurraider21]

I think we might be needing to draft a corner high yet again.

Signing Rashaan Melvin was a big one, but we let go of Sean Smith, David Amerson (both disappointed after getting paid), and TJ Carrie. Only other corner we brought in was Shareece Wright and he's just a body, not a starting caliber player. Gareon Conley and Melvin should be a good enough starting duo, but we have no depth to speak of.

Otherwise, replaced Crabtree with Jordy Nelson, so not a lot of movement there. Nelson has lost his speed but is as good a possession receiver as Crabtree has been, but without the drama. Downside is guaranteeing his deal, whereas Crabtree had nothing guaranteed left.

Marcus Gilchrist and Tahir Whitehead are quality signings.

Nothing else of note, signing a backup tight end, a fullback, and Doug Martin to spell Lynch (though what they're showing in camp/preseason could shake things up).

Still waiting on Mack's extension. He's worth whatever they pay him.

[spurraider21]

Replaced 29 year old Bowman with 35 year old Derrick Johnson and are now bringing in Brian Cushing in for a visit.

They really couldn't come to terms with Bowman? smh

This defense is really banking on a bunch of rookie/second year players to be very very good... and soon. Gareon Conley, Obi Melifonwu need to be strong in the secondary, and they really need Mo Hurst and PJ Hall to be difference making D-Tackles. Otherwise it's going to be ugly.

Poor drafting outside of 2014 has really hampered this team. Not enough rookie-contract guys being impact starters. McKenzie has always stressed signing cheap veterans and building through the draft, but they've only really been doing one of those lately.

[spurraider21]

correction:

[Blake]

I think we might be needing to draft a corner high yet again.

Signing Rashaan Melvin was a big one, but we let go of Sean Smith, David Amerson (both disappointed after getting paid), and TJ Carrie. Only other corner we brought in was Shareece Wright and he's just a body, not a starting caliber player. Gareon Conley and Melvin should be a good enough starting duo, but we have no depth to speak of.

Otherwise, replaced Crabtree with Jordy Nelson, so not a lot of movement there. Nelson has lost his speed but is as good a possession receiver as Crabtree has been, but without the drama. Downside is guaranteeing his deal, whereas Crabtree had nothing guaranteed left.

Marcus Gilchrist and Tahir Whitehead are quality signings.

Nothing else of note, signing a backup tight end, a fullback, and Doug Martin to spell Lynch (though what they're showing in camp/preseason could shake things up).

Still waiting on Mack's extension. He's worth whatever they pay him.

Overpaid for Jordy.

Too bad Crab is such a diva. I thought he was a great fit otherwise for the Raiders with Cooper on the other side.

[spurraider21]

Overpaid for Jordy.

Too bad Crab is such a diva. I thought he was a great fit otherwise for the Raiders with Cooper on the other side.

they gave jordy whatever they were paying crabtree. and only his first year is guaranteed. 2nd year has some guarantees but only for injury. so its probably a one year pact. crabtree had 1 year left on his deal. so really no difference there.

and yeah, bittersweet with crabtree. guy resurrected his career here and gave us 2 great years before bottoming out last season

the real problem has been McKenzie's drafting. he's still living off the 2014 draft where he got Mack, Carr, Gabe Jackson, Justin Ellis, and TJ Carrie. an A+ draft there, but he's been pretty awful every other year. this year's draft has a ton of boom/bust potential, but i have no issue with Gruden having some say in drafting. McKenzie doesn't really inspire confidence with his draft history.

[spurraider21]

McKenzie took over in 2012.

- nobody from the 2012 class is on our roster
- nobody from the 2013 class in on our roster
- 2014 class was a home run. 4 starters on our roster, and TJ Carrie signed a big FA deal to go to Cleveland
- only 3 guys from 2015 class on our roster. two of them starting (cooper and mario edwards), the other is a reserve G/C
- only 1 starter from 2016 class (joseph). would not be entirely shocking if the rest get cut this summer (connor cook, deandre washington, vadal alexander)

book is out on 2017, obviously, but our first 2 picks missed basically the whole year to injury. we also drafted 2 tackles, but then new regime drafted 2 tackles this draft, so those guys are probably on notice. only one surefire starter (conley), and one who has to earn his way on the field (melifonwu). the rest are rotational/reserve guys

[spurraider21]

only having 8-9 starters from 6 draft classes is pretty abysmal. and you can only afford so many starting caliber free agents in their 20's. thats how you end up with a team relying on cheap veterans to hold it down.

[Blake]

they gave jordy whatever they were paying crabtree. and only his first year is guaranteed. 2nd year has some guarantees but only for injury. so its probably a one year pact. crabtree had 1 year left on his deal. so really no difference there.

and yeah, bittersweet with crabtree. guy resurrected his career here and gave us 2 great years before bottoming out last season

If there was no difference why release him? Did they really come out that much ahead on salary cap?

[spurraider21]

If there was no difference why release him? Did they really come out that much ahead on salary cap?

nah, cap wise they're in roughly an identical position. they wanted to part ways because of his diva tendencies, as you alluded to. he did basically quit on the team last few weeks of the season. and he had quite a bit of drops for the guy who is our possession receiver.

ultimately, i dont think they were going to cut him, however, because they weren't going to find anybody at a comparable talent level who would sign on for 7-8 mil per year. the top FA's all got paid way more. they only moved to let him go after nelson was cut and they agreed to terms with him for 7.5.

the release of crabtree and signing of nelson happened like 5 minutes apart. they ultimately figured Nelson will produce about as well as they wanted Crabtree to, but with less of a headache

personally, i liked crabtree, but he was coming off an ugly year. i dont think the nelson-crabtree swap really moves the needle for the team. martavis bryant could, though. the offensive personnel isn't really the problem. it's up to gruden to oil the machine and get it going again. the season is really going to come down to how the young guys on defense perform. it cant just be 10 guys making no impact + khalil mack doing something amazing once a game

[Blake]

nah, cap wise they're in roughly an identical position. they wanted to part ways because of his diva tendencies, as you alluded to.

Yeah I'd concur with them that's enough to cut him especially if he's not producing/getting suspended

[spurraider21]

Yeah I'd concur with them that's enough to cut him especially if he's not producing/getting suspended

the main downside is that nelson is a couple years older than crabtree. though neither guy is really separating that easily anymore. crabtree was never fast to begin with. they both run good routes and have good hands/body control. if martavis bryant pans out, they can let nelson go and give that money to bryant as the younger option going forward.

[UNT Eagles 2016]

Martavis Bryant
Gareon Conley
Aldon Smith
Arden Key

lol... feel like I'm missing someone

[spurraider21]

Martavis Bryant
Gareon Conley
Aldon Smith
Arden Key

lol... feel like I'm missing someone

randy Gregory and greg hardy?

[UNT Eagles 2016]

randy Gregory and greg hardy?

Hardy was a bad experiment and a knee jerk reaction to having no pass rush the year before. They wanted nothing to do with him by midseason that year.

Gregory, by all accounts, is a good guy who just happens to be a big time pot stoner. No DV, DUIs, hard drugs, effort issues, locker room issues, felonies etc. All he does is like to smoke pot. Which Goodell has a major problem with.