johnadams said:
DocHolliday said:
Cleveland is running away with this as it should be. A couple of years ago, the Raiders win this poll. The Raiders are more stable than normal and are digging out of cap hell created by Al. Not sure if the Raiders have found the answers at GM and HC but at least there is some hope. There was no hope at the of the Al era.
Disclosure: Raiders are my #1 team with Cleveland as #2. Yes. It has been a long decade.
That's a pretty low bar for stability. I'm not convinced that having that much cap room is actually healthy. I can't see too many top line FAs overly excited to play for a team that neither contends nor gets on TV. OAK will have to overpay for the top line guys and get very creative with their contracts to exceed the cap floor while not putting themselves back into this situation in the near future. Back to back 4-12 finishes with a messy QB situation made worse by coaching decisions and a HC who seems like he's already on the hot seat doesn't scream hope to me. Maybe in the unique world of the Oakland Raiders, it's hope, but really, 2014 lines up to be a bit of a mess again. McKenzie's two drafts so far have been dreadful. Sure, more time to assess, but for now, really quite awful. And they have the toughest schedule in 2014 (in terms of winning percentage of opponents) so it's going to get pretty ugly. I don't think Allen lasts the season as HC and if McKenzie whiffs again, he may not last either. I think a case can be made that OAK has the least talented team top to bottom in the NFL right now. FA should fix that a bit, but the successful teams build through the draft and supplement with FAs. I'm not seeing much hope there right now.
I agree with almost everything you say here. No doubt the Raiders arguably have the least amount of talent in the league (looking at you Jacksonville). DA might get canned and take Reggie with him if they have another 4-12 season. And no the strength of schedule isn't an alibi.
But I really don't see how $63 million in cap space is a bad thing. Is there an opposite scenario that's good? They will sign their own free agents and reward selectively some of the one year contracts from last year as well as bring in a couple or three prize free agents. There really is nowhere to go from here but up.
The one thing I disagree with you is your first sentence saying that the current Raider regime is a "pretty low bar for stability". It's now into heading it's third year since Hue Jackson's exile after Al Davis' death. The current management is lockstep and stable, for better or for worse. They are the model of stability, at least compared to clown car franchise like Cleveland.