Las Vegas Raiders Thread

Prefab Sprouter · 25-03-2021 5:06pm

I'm still scatching my head somewhat at our Free Agency. It apears that Gruden has decided to blow up the O-Line and start again. For a coach in his 4th Season in charge, it isnt a good sign. Everyone was expecting Defense to be the focus and now he has added to our needs as opposed to solved them. Drake was a decent pickup but RB was already seen as a position of strength. Sometimes I really do struggle to understand our team's Modus Operandi.

Kev8360 · 26-03-2021 12:03pm

Prefab Sprouter wrote: »

I'm still scatching my head somewhat at our Free Agency. It apears that Gruden has decided to blow up the O-Line and start again. For a coach in his 4th Season in charge, it isnt a good sign. Everyone was expecting Defense to be the focus and now he has added to our needs as opposed to solved them. Drake was a decent pickup but RB was already seen as a position of strength. Sometimes I really do struggle to understand our team's Modus Operandi.

I agree , its a strange decision but we did have one of the highest paid O-lines in football over the last few years so if any area of the team had to take a cut to bring in better players on defense that was always going to be a prime candidate especially with the cap situation this year due to Covid.

I do expect the offense to be worse next year but if they can reduce the points conceded in a meaningful way they wont need to light it up every week and the ball control offense with Jacobs and now Drake will have a better chance to control games.

Too many times last year Josh Jacobs was a non factor because they had to score fast to keep up.

Thats my hope anyway but the draft and rest of FA will tell the tale....

golfball37 · 20-04-2021 7:47am

Arden Key and Mo Hurst both cut. Strange move as they are both still on their rookie contracts and ain’t saving much

Kev8360 · 23-04-2021 9:11am

golfball37 wrote: »

Arden Key and Mo Hurst both cut. Strange move as they are both still on their rookie contracts and ain’t saving much

Very true - I thought both were solid role players, both have been snapped by the 49ers.

With Ngakoue coming in maybe the thinking is they can reinforce via the draft I am guessing.

Will know soon enough.....

Prefab Sprouter · 27-04-2021 3:39pm

Kev8360 wrote: »

Very true - I thought both were solid role players, both have been snapped by the 49ers.

With Ngakoue coming in maybe the thinking is they can reinforce via the draft I am guessing.

Will know soon enough.....

With a pick at 17, its really tough to figure out what way the Management are going to view this draft.

Will they address an area of need?

Will they pick the best available (something we havent been able to do in decades!!)

Will they trade back (or God Forbid, mortgage the future on trading up??)

This year seems a real quandary. We all have ideas about what they SHOULD do, but it rarely pans out that way with Gruden and Mayock.

heyjude · 27-04-2021 8:01pm

The Raiders are in the NFL version of purgatory, not bad enough to get a top 5 pick and draft a future Hall of Famer, while not being good enough to seriously challenge for the Super Bowl.

Darren Waller and possibly Josh Jacobs aside, the team is bereft of playmakers on both sides of the ball and all the extra first round picks from trading Mack and Cooper hasn't helped, as they were frittered away.

I had hoped that we would go defence heavy and find the playmakers on defence to allow the team to make a step forward, but trading away over half the O-line has created more holes to be filled and the re-signing of Karl Joseph just a year after allowing him to depart in free agency is a total head scratcher. So now I can see 2 of our first 4 picks going on a right tackle and guard.

If Gruden is calling the draft shots behind the scenes, then he needs to let Mayock do the job that he was hired to do and stay out of the way, because the past few drafts(especially in the early rounds) have been awful. If recent drafts are Mayocks' work, then I'd say this is his final chance.

I think we need quality over quantity, so I wouldn't be averse to trading up a spot or two in the early rounds if a player you really like is still available, so long as the price isn't too steep. We must come out of this draft with playmakers that our opponents need to gameplan for and fear, like they used to for Mack. We can't afford to end up with more players like Lynn Bowden and Tanner Muse.

Kev8360 · 29-04-2021 8:21am

I am certain that the HC who has a 10 year 100million dollar contract is calling the shots in the draft - I have yet to see any indication that Mike Mayock is the final decision maker when it come to draft picks.

From the little that I have read about the draft this seems to be a bumper year for QBs and not much else so trading up is not likely unless we want to go top 5 to get a QB and I cannot see that - I am not sure outside of Waller/Jacobs/Carr what we have to use as draft bait.

I am not expecting great things from this draft tbh. We might pick up some late round steals but with so many areas to address its hard to see what we will go after.

Only one thing I can guarantee is that we will draft the concensus "fastest player" in the draft... however it is measured since there was no combine.

Prefab Sprouter · 29-04-2021 9:40am

I'll be happy if, for once, we dont do our usual "reach" for players. It would be nice to have a safe, conservative draft and whilst I do trust Mayock to properly evaluate players, I always imagine that Gruden is looking at ways of surprising other owners by drafting players that other owners werent considering at that point in the draft. He just cant seem to just draft, always seems to be tinkering and meddling.

MrKingsley · 29-04-2021 10:23am

It'll be interesting to see what they do. If be happy for them to trade down to be honest. We are not just a player or two short. We have holes all over the place.

That's even more frustrating when seeing that we've have 6 first rounders over the last 3 years.

Actually just had a look back there. We've only had 7 picks in rounds 2&3 under Gruden and Mayock in comparison.

I would much rather for them to be looking for "their kind of guys" in rounds 2& 3 instead of the first round.

heyjude · 29-04-2021 11:22pm

Feeling a bit apprehensive about two of the offensive tackles being linked with the Raiders - Tevin Jenkins - who is a mauler in the run game but struggled a bit with pass protection in college and apparently has short arms for a tackle, meaning he could end up playing at guard and Alijah Vera-Tucker, who is really a guard that has played tackle and could also end up reverting to guard. If we need a right tackle then we need to pick someone excels at that position in the NFL, not another Robert Gallery.

Also keeping my fingers crossed that Micah Parsons doesn't end up at the Broncos or Chargers.

Kev8360 · 30-04-2021 8:42am

Well O-line was going to be the top priority after shedding all the senior players so I can see why they went that way with the pick. Sounds like they could have got him in the next round but with all the top players already gone off the board there was probably not a lot of interest from other teams to trade up.

Kev8360 · 04-05-2021 9:16am

Well looking at what we did in the draft I can see that we were definitely trying to address the defense - main worry is that we seemed to draft a lot in the S/CB area which we do need but I worry that this feels like picking in volume and hoping some turn out to be good.

Drafting in the middle of the rounds does have that disadvantage though.

I really hope that the Rodgers mess in Green bay doesn't drag Gruden into a trade. That could end worse than the Antonio Brown fiasco.

ButcherOfNog · 07-05-2021 8:45pm

I'm expecting another 8-8 season at best

eire4 · 08-05-2021 6:49pm

ButcherOfNog wrote: »

I'm expecting another 8-8 season at best

Unfortunately I have to agree especially the at best bit:(

adrian522 · 08-05-2021 7:44pm

Well there's 17 games so 8-8 seems unlikely

eire4 · 08-05-2021 7:45pm

adrian522 wrote: »

Well there's 17 games so 8-8 seems unlikely

Haha I forgot about that.

Prefab Sprouter · 10-05-2021 7:47am

adrian522 wrote: »

Well there's 17 games so 8-8 seems unlikely

8-8 and 1!!

:p

Kev8360 · 11-05-2021 5:14pm

Prefab Sprouter wrote: »

8-8 and 1!! :p

Haha!

That would be like us alright

ButcherOfNog · 12-05-2021 8:10am

Fair enough, forgot about the extra game. I'll upgrade my expectations to 8-8-1, after a 6-2 start

Prefab Sprouter · 12-05-2021 9:58am

ButcherOfNog wrote: »

Fair enough, forgot about the extra game. I'll upgrade my expectations to 8-8-1, after a 6-2 start

We'll know how realistic these predictions might be later, when the Schedule is released! No doubt we'll have to travel to KC on a Thursday, following a trip to the east coast on the preceding Sunday!

Kev8360 · 12-05-2021 3:13pm

Starting off MNF with the Ravens in LV so handy one there in the W column..... for the Ravens

Prefab Sprouter · 12-05-2021 3:22pm

Kev8360 wrote: »

Starting off MNF with the Ravens in LV so handy one there in the W column..... for the Ravens

:D:D:D:D:D

Kev8360 · 12-05-2021 3:34pm

Some of it has already leaked apparently -

Sept. 13 vs. Ravens (MNF)
Oct. 10 vs. Bears
Oct. 17 at Broncos
Oct. 24 vs. Eagles
Nov. 7 at Giants
Nov. 25 at Cowboys (Thanksgiving)
Dec. 26 vs. Broncos

Kev8360 · 13-05-2021 8:51am

Full Schedule:

Week Date Team PT
1 Sep-13 Baltimore Ravens* 05:15 pm
2 Sep-19 @ Pittsburgh Steelers 10:00 am
3 Sep-26 Miami Dolphins 01:05 pm
4 Oct -4 @ Los Angeles Chargers* 05:15 pm
5 10-Oct Chicago Bears 01:05 pm
6 Oct-17 @ Denver Broncos 01:25 pm
7 Oct-24 Philadelphia Eagles 01:05 pm
8 BYE
9 Nov-7 @ New York Giants 10:00 am
10 Nov-14 Kansas City Chiefs** 05:20 pm
11 Nov-21 Cincinnati Bengals 01:05 pm
12 Nov-25 @ Dallas Cowboys*** 01:30 pm
13 Dec-5 Washington Football Team 01:05 pm
14 12-Dec @ Kansas City Chiefs 10:00 am
15 12/18 or 12/19 @ Cleveland Browns TBD
16 Dec-26 Denver Broncos 01:25 pm
17 Jan-2 @ Indianapolis Colts 10:00 am
18 Jan-9 Los Angeles Chargers 01:25 pm

My takeaways are the start is brutal with 2 AFC north matchups (steelers away on a short week) - Cant see us getting more than 3 wins
before the bye best case. The middle of the schedule (9-13) is where we really need to make hay and beat all we can outside of the chiefs.

8-8-1 here we go!

Prefab Sprouter · 13-05-2021 9:32pm

Jerry McDonald on Twitter made the point that fans of frequently successful teams do really care about the schedule too much, whereas the likes of us Raiders fans obsess over each week, where its played etc. Guess it shows how far we've fallen!

Kev8360 · 14-05-2021 1:49pm

Prefab Sprouter wrote: »

Jerry McDonald on Twitter made the point that fans of frequently successful teams do really care about the schedule too much, whereas the likes of us Raiders fans obsess over each week, where its played etc. Guess it shows how far we've fallen!

yep its true - its funny sometimes you see a team get a couple of early wins in a tough schedule and they really push on above expectations so it is pointless stressing too much about it. If you think about it our 12-4 season was a brutal schedule - we had multiple east coast back to back trips and early games but we handled it well.

You just never know.

Kev8360 · 22-08-2021 3:45pm

Nate Hobbs at CB looking decent in preseason so far. Looking like he may be in line for a starting spot.

Kev8360 · 01-09-2021 10:41am

some Interesting decisions on the players cut. From all reports John Brown didn’t do well in training camp so not surprised he is cut but still a strange one considering how well he played for buffalo last year. Trey Ragas I thought would survive but might be due to Jalen Richard being injured and needing to do some roster wrangling with the practice squad to keep both of them

also I found it strange that Most of the 1st team didn’t get any reps in pre season. I know there’s worries about injuries (JK dobbins is a prime example for the ravens) and 1 less game and all but even giving them a couple of drives in the first game would have been worthwhile just to knock the rust off.

not too long to go to find out if it was the right call.

heyjude · 13-09-2021 9:02pm

At last its time for kickoff and the Ravens will be tough opposition, even though facing Baltimore in Vegas in September rather than in Baltimore in November has got to be a plus. The Ravens have had to place 3 starters on IR in the past few days, so it might also be an advantage to play them before their replacements at RB and CB have a chance to bed in. Just maybe with Peters missing, Ruggs can have a big game.

Defence has been the Raiders' achilles heel for years, so it will be interesting to see what Gus Bradley can do. There are plenty of new faces on defence, but Yannick, KJ Wright, Perryman and Heyward, who will all see extensive playing time and have played for Bradley before, may help speed up the process, even if the best defensive performances may be a few weeks away.

Kenyon Drake is the only new offensive skill position player likely to see significant playing time and will hopefully spell Josh Jacobs who seems to have been carrying a knock in recent days. But how will the new faces on the o-line cope with the Ravens pass rush with Incognito, Hudson, Jackson and Brown, all missing, the latter 3 having left town and with Incognito a week or 2 from full fitness. Their replacements, John Simpson, Andre James, Denzelle Good and rookie Alex Leatherwood face a baptism of fire. While I'm hoping for a big season from Foster Moreau, who if he can stay fit, could emerge as a real star.

With the Chiefs, Broncos and Chargers all winning yesterday, despite the tough opposition, the Raiders really need to win, especially at home. The AFC West will rival the NFC West as the toughest division in football and could be very close at the end, so if the Raiders want to challenge for the playoffs, they need to show it from the start.

ankles · 15-09-2021 9:58am

Raiders concede a ton of points but manage to squeeze out a win. But it's the first half of the season. So just like 2020 already in other words...

Kev8360 · 16-09-2021 2:14pm

Crazy finish to the game!

The defense came up big late on and in OT so there are some good signs for this year even though that was a ravens team without its top 3 RBs leaving Lamar Jackson to carry the load.

Worrying to see us lose a good few players to injury. McCoy is gone for the season as well as Good on the OL and Mariota is out with a quad injury and Ngakoue/Jacobs are already banged up.

Tough game away to the Steelers next. They had a good win in buffalo last week and will be on a high.

ankles · 19-09-2021 5:43pm

Good battle to start anyway. Defense are showing up a lot more than I thought they would, or could

ankles · 19-09-2021 8:28pm

Boom!great result

Prefab Sprouter · 20-09-2021 10:27am

Great win last night. Carr is having a fantastic season so far and has flourished despite an O-line in Transition and no Josh Jacobs. The Defense is looking much better under Bradley so far. The signs are good for a competitive season. Having said that, its going to be some job getting out of the division. AFC West is suddenly ultra competitive again!

Kev8360 · 27-09-2021 9:35am

Well it wasn’t pretty at times last night but finally pulled it out of the bag.

great to see both Bryan Edwards and Henry Ruggs getting some key catches in the game and Carr is starting to really spread the ball around. Defense is solid but gave up some big penalties at key times - Maxx Crosby is a standout performer on the line but needs to be careful with some of his late hits on QBs.

we got some big plays from Peyton Barber to close the game out but would love to see josh Jacobs back soon - our offense will be better for it.

Prefab Sprouter · 05-10-2021 7:56pm

So I got up early last night to watch the match - didnt help that it was delayed by 50 minutes due to lightning!!! Anyways we stank offensively in the first half, it was really hard to watch. The O-line is really shaky and the LA Front Seven set up camp in our backfield. Our Defense held itself up well but yet again, we dug ourselves into a hole and this was one occasion where a comeback was not possible. We really need to improve against Chicago next Sunday.

eagle eye · 06-10-2021 12:04am

Every team has bad weeks, just chalk it down to that. I expect you'll be back to your best next week.

Kev8360 · 11-10-2021 2:08pm

offense is really not firing at the moment. Hopefully they can figure it out this week and get a win to steady the ship.

Kev8360 · 12-10-2021 7:24am

Well I didn’t think that the loss to the bears would be the least of our worries this week.

Prefab Sprouter · 12-10-2021 9:33am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118007549#Comment_118007549

Well at least we can get past the "Is Carr good enough to play for Gruden" discussion now!!!!!

Prefab Sprouter · 14-10-2021 1:44pm

There's absolutely no way of knowing how we are going to perform this Sunday. I just hope the players go out and make a game of it...

Kev8360 · 18-10-2021 12:28pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118019824#Comment_118019824

Missed the game last night but watched the highlights. Much improved this year on the pass defense and the offense finally got going. Hard to tell if they were that good or the broncos were not at it. I dont care either way - it was a good win against a division rival and gets up back to level with the chargers.

Prefab Sprouter · 18-10-2021 1:17pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118036058#Comment_118036058

I agree Kev. It was really heartening watching the game unfold. The Defense played really well last night and it was great to see. Like you, I dont care about whether the Broncos were bad or we were good, its good to be back challenging for the division. The Chiefs may well end up winning the division but it wont be as easy this season. I'm looking forward to seeing how next Sunday goes, given that the new management will have proper time to sit down and pull things together. I'm interested in seeing how different the game plan will be. I see MD is seething over the leaked e-mails. He believes the Raiders were victims of a "hit job". This is in no way any attempt by me to defend Gruden. He deserves to go. But there is something strange in that over 650,000 mails were searched and Gruden was the only person culpable.

Kev8360 · 21-10-2021 10:37pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118036409#Comment_118036409

Most likely Gruden was the most high profile name in the mails and from what I have read I am not surprised that they were leaked - someone definitely made some big money with letting that out.

i don’t think it was going to end any other way than him going - the nfl is a business and those comments hit them hard where they are trying to get more fans engaged. They were crude, ill thought out and he will regret them in the long term now that his career is effectively over in the nfl.

I also do think If he was still at espn he would have been sacked. Gruden will probably get a big payoff so I don’t feel too sorry for him at the end of the day.

eagle eye · 22-10-2021 1:10pm

Gruden will do a course in racial, homosexual and all other type of relations. He'll then spend time talking to groups of kids and less well off people about how important it is to get along and treat people with respect and then he'll be welcomed back with open arms and praised for all the good work he has done since his mistakes.

That's what money buys you and he has plenty.

It appears Mark Davis isn't happy about how all this transpired and believes the leaks came from the NFL head office and that Goodell may have been behind it.

There could be sparks flying at the next owners meeting. Davis is generally pretty quiet at those meetings.

Kev8360 · 22-10-2021 1:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118057744#Comment_118057744

I don't buy into the narrative that the league have it in for the Raiders, but in this case if the mails were derogatory towards Goodell as they seem to be that would certainly be an incentive for him to screw over Gruden. Mark Davies may start to be more vocal at the owners meetings but my sense is that he does not have any real support among the rest of the owners - especially after the way the LA relocation deal went down.

Kev8360 · 26-10-2021 2:38pm

Good to chalk up a win - and also another good week for the defense in getting after the QB against an admittedly bad team but you can only play what's in front of you. Derek Carr has found some rhythm again which is great to see. I still am not sure how good or bad this team will be this year. Good time to have a bye week - hopefully we get Darren Waller back for the next stretch of games.

ButcherOfNog · 26-10-2021 4:57pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117139714#Comment_117139714

Prediction looking on track, great start to the season. I really don't want to see our normal mid-to-late season crumble, but I'm concerned that if we really have simplified the offense, teams are going to get up to speed on what we're doing and slow us down. Carr playing really well, and if we keep improving on the ground in the rush game, perhaps a playoff place is on the cards? Helps lots that KC seem to be falling apart, and I never factored that into my prediction :)

Kev8360 · 03-11-2021 4:55pm

Henry Ruggs III was cut post a car crash which resulted in a fatality. Looks like he will be charged with a DUI. Terrible situation and so sad to see someone die because of it.

ceadaoin. · 06-11-2021 6:20pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118113940#Comment_118113940

He is the most hated guy in Vegas right now. Drove 156mph while drunk and a poor woman and her dog got burnt alive. What a scumbag. He's been charged with a lot more than just DUI

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