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2015 Oakland Raiders Thread (2 Viewers)

Vincent Bonsignore
‏@DailyNewsVinny
The #Raiders relocating to San Diego should #Chargers join #Rams in Inglewood has been forwarded as a solution

Vincent Bonsignore ‏@DailyNewsVinny 21m21 minutes ago

Vincent Bonsignore retweeted Joel Diaz
The news is #NFL is bringing potential solutions/end games to owners. That's new

Vincent Bonsignore ‏@DailyNewsVinny 33m33 minutes ago

FYI: Hearing scenarios are being lobbied to #NFL owners as potential solutions for #Rams #Raiders #Chargers Los Angeles relocation

 
Looking forward to opening game at o_O. The return of Hue Jackson to the black hole. Thought I'd bring some points of discussion:

Can Khalil Mack and co. bring the heat against a top 10 OL?

Can the Raiders young and unproven starting secondary hold Andy Dalton in check, keep AJ Green from a monster game?

Can the new LB core get up to speed quickly now that Sio Moore is no longer around anchoring the unit?

Can D Carr challenge the Bengals secondary against the backdrop of a much improved Cincy front 7?

Can the Raiders generate push off the line especially the right side that looks like a work in progress at best heading into the season?

Can the Raider offense punch it into the end zone once they are down close in the red zone?

Can the Raiders special teams improve from their awful preseason?

Excited to see Jack Del Rio coach the Raiders with live bullets flying...

:popcorn:

 
I think Mack will get pressure at times but Dalton and Green are going to have a lot of success.

The online worries me. The left should be good but the right side looks very weak. Need to see Carr have some success deep. He stands a chance with a much improved WR corp.

Raiders lose by 14.

 
Looking forward to opening game at o_O. The return of Hue Jackson to the black hole. Thought I'd bring some points of discussion:

Can Khalil Mack and co. bring the heat against a top 10 OL?

Can the Raiders young and unproven starting secondary hold Andy Dalton in check, keep AJ Green from a monster game?

Can the new LB core get up to speed quickly now that Sio Moore is no longer around anchoring the unit?

Can D Carr challenge the Bengals secondary against the backdrop of a much improved Cincy front 7?

Can the Raiders generate push off the line especially the right side that looks like a work in progress at best heading into the season?

Can the Raider offense punch it into the end zone once they are down close in the red zone?

Can the Raiders special teams improve from their awful preseason?

Excited to see Jack Del Rio coach the Raiders with live bullets flying...

:popcorn:
As much as I'd like to think that we could knock off the Bengals in our home opener, I am worried about our ability to contain the passing game with a weak secondary, or generate the kind of pass rush we were seeing in preseason against a pretty good OLine.

I think we will see some success in bottling up inside runs, and listening to Del Rio on Sirius, he understands that the gameplan is going to require a lot of physicality and winning in the trenches.

Super excited to start the season!

 
Vincent Bonsignore

‏@DailyNewsVinny

The #Raiders relocating to San Diego should #Chargers join #Rams in Inglewood has been forwarded as a solution
That's utterly ridiculous -- why bring in a hated division rival when the city can't support their own team?
Exactly. The SD fanbase hates the Raiders much more than they have ever loved the Chargers. You have to figure 50% of the fanbase will refuse to support the Raiders.

 
I think the only hope for our secondary is going to be our front 7. I think there is hope there too- Mack by himself will disrupt a whole lot of snaps even if he doesn't make the play and that should give the other guys chances to do something as well. If we get good pressure on the QB like I think we are now capable of then we can help that secondary hold up.

 
jake long? thoughts?
Why? Are there rumors they are bringing him in for a look?

Last I saw Atlanta and the Giants were the only ones interested in him.
why? the o line isn't exactly perfect. money isn't an issue. why not take a flyer on him.

remember, i wanted incognito too
Long is a long way from his Pro Bowl stints, but I think he does have the ability and smarts to play along guard or tackle positions on either side. Interesting.

 
jake long? thoughts?
Why? Are there rumors they are bringing him in for a look?

Last I saw Atlanta and the Giants were the only ones interested in him.
why? the o line isn't exactly perfect. money isn't an issue. why not take a flyer on him.

remember, i wanted incognito too
I was curious why you were asking not why would the Raiders do it.

I thought maybe some news came out that they were considering bringing him in.

My guess is that either Atl or NYG sign him after week 1.

 
@AdamSchefter: Despite off-field issues, Raiders' Aldon Smith IS eligible to play Sunday, per source. OAK will consider playing him, based on conditioning.

 
Hard to put a lot of faith in Aldon not screwing up again, but all for second (or in this case sixth) chances and hope we have the support mechanisms to keep Aldon on the right track.

If he can get back to form with a new attitude, hard to see how we won't develop instantly into a pass rushing machine.

 
I don't know what kind of shape it is realistic to expect him to be in but if he stays on the field...boy howdy!

 
Geez, why not?

Zero faith in him being smart, but that's why you sign him after the season begins. He gets paid for games active, no guarantees. Nice.

 
Geez, why not?

Zero faith in him being smart, but that's why you sign him after the season begins. He gets paid for games active, no guarantees. Nice.
Does this apply to all teams or just Pit & NE? I was under the impression that the ability to sign veterans after the start of the season without guaranteeing salary would apply only after the team played its first game. But if it just means kickoff of the first game then so much the better.

 
Pretty cool news on a Friday to hear that Aldon Smith is a Raider. Just what the doctor ordered for our meager pass rush from a season ago. Assuming he starts right away. Don't know how the rotation with Tuck will go, but I assume Jack will have them moving all over the line. Also worried about the niche for our promising young Mario Edwards. But it's a great problem to have. Send the heat at the QB in waves.

 
Ok, obviously that makes any Raider fan drool with the thought of putting Aldon in there. I mean, Smith and Mack is freaking scary as hell coupling in any defense. But there are two things for us Raider fans to remember...

1) He has been on the street for a while, it will take him some time to get up to football speed.

2) Most likely there is a suspension coming down.

I just hope he can stay clean and stay out of trouble and ends up resigning with us. Smith and Mack is one of hell of a core to build a D around.

 
1) He's already practicing today with the Raiders. Remember T Rich was off to the side and missed several practices because he was not up to speed. JDR apparently doesn't just toss any body into practice until he's convinced they're ready. To see pictures already in practice speaks volumes about his physical condition.

2) The misdemeanor injunction filed against him isn't until October. So worst case, if he pleads guilty, gets suspended, we get 4 games out of him. And maybe he gets off with a good lawyer. I like our chances.

 
Could the Raiders be on the move? Pessimists will take that statement as meaning they will attempt to relocate again to Los Angeles and/or block any move from the Rams or Chargers. Optimists hope that the baby steps this team may have taken in ’14 will lead to some stability in the overall roster with on-field team growth. For the first time in forever Oakland does not figure to waste draft picks and free agent signings on a QB. Likewise, after fielding about 18-19 new defensive starters the past two seasons I look for some defensive stability. Veteran coach Jack Del Rio hopes his second coaching gig goes smoothly.

What went right: Derek Carr was not supposed to start but Matt Schaub got hurt. Now Carr has 16 valuable games of experience to build on. To be honest I was shocked that the offensive line allowed the rookie QB to be sacked just 12 times in Oakland’s first 11 games (28 for the entire season). Rookie Khalil Mack started slowly but proved by season’s end that he was worthy of a high draft selection. Young RB Latavious Murray did what Darren McFadden could not do; rush for a strong yards-per-carry average. PK Sebastian Janikowski continued to be very reliable.

What went wrong: Carr finished with a stout 21-12 ratio but the yards-per-completion figure was terrible! Teams need to average around 11 yards-per-completion. Carr totaled just 3,270 yards on 348 completions, suggesting the offensive pass attack was in complete learning mode. I noted that the pass protection was good but they did allow 17 sacks the final five games. The rush attack was last in the NFL. In fact, the Raiders had just four rush TD’s the entire season! WR play was substandard even with a solid performance from free agent signee James Jones. In this offensive-minded NFL Oakland scored 14 or fewer points in 10-16 games. Oakland led the NFL in three-and-outs. The pass defense % was a too high 63.8%, but that comes with the territory when there are so many changes on defense each and every year, coupled with a few injuries to the defensive backfield. Oakland tallied just 10 defensive interceptions, contributing to an overall turnover ratio of -15. A year after recording 38 sacks (high for them, but below the NFL’s quite high ’13 average) the Raiders regressed back to just 22 sacks. Amazingly, only once did they record more than two sacks! Oakland did not allow a kick return TD but did allow a whopping 32.5 yards per return. Neither Head Coach Dennis Allen nor interim coach Tony Sparano sparked confidence.

2014 draft recap: Oakland got 54 starts out of its first four selections. Mack started slow but finished strong and finished with 76 tackles and four sacks. Carr had a solid rookie season. OG Gabe Jackson was rated third (by me) at his position. He had a solid debut. DT Justin Ellis was not rated by me but started 14 games with 21 tackles. Let’s see what his ceiling really is. CB Keith McGill played late in the year and contributed. CB Travis Carrie had 44 rookie tackles and was effective on punt returns. DE Shelby Harris was active just once. Safety Jonathan Dowling had four tackles. These last two players are nothing special.

ROSTER ANALYSIS AS OF SEPTEMBER 3RD:

QB: David Carr did NOT stretch the field as a rookie but certainly had a decent debut. The back-ups are fine.

RB: Health will be the key, as ranked 6th round pick from ’13 Latayius Murray has a solid skill set. Let’s hope Oakland picks someone up before the start of the season as a back-up as otherwise this unit would be awful if Murray went down.

WR: Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree immediately assume the top spots. Most everyone else has #3 WR skill at best.

TE: The unit is decent, and three deep. Rookie Clive Walford has the most upside.

OL: Surprisingly, sacks allowed were down most of last year but they did allow 16 in their final five games. The overall unit is a bit below average and their RT is gone for the year.

DL: I like the addition of DT Dan Williams. Rookie Mario Edwards hopes to help the pass rush. Khalil Mack is listed as a DE. Wherever he plays that unit gets a boost.

LB: Curtis Lofton is a solid addition. The rest of the unit is likely to be up and down, with newcomers and youngsters still going through growing pains as well as positional changes.

CB: The top three guys are very young, with not much in the way of starting experience. The new staff is better than the old one, but I would not project an under 60% pass D for ’15.

Safety: Charles Woodson keeps plugging along. Nate Allen is the veteran newcomer. Oakland has no developing young talent at this position. In fact, there will be at least four newcomers starting defensively in ’15. This has become a nasty habit.

Special Teams: Will the new staff fix the return D? The kicking game is as solid as ever. For now the return game looks poor.

Coaching: Jack Del Rio is an upgrade at Head Coach. Bill Musgrave is decent as the new OC. Ken Norton Jr. is a solid hire as the new DC. Brad Seeley comes over from SF to be the new Special Teams Coordinator.

TEAM KEYS AS OF SEPTEMBER 3RD: Oakland has not finished above .500 since their last Super Bowl appearance after the ’02 season. They are 56-136 since then and 11-37 the past three seasons. Once again, getting win #1 for their new staff is critical. Breaking that down, the home record has to improve, while that road record was 0-9 in ’14 (counting a London loss) and that needs to change early on. Can they reduce that -15 turnover ratio? What will having a real WR (Cooper) do for their offense? Oakland had just 22 defensive sacks in ’14. I’m projecting 32 sacks now which remains below the NFL average.

DID THE PRESEASON MEAN ANYTHING? RB Murray is being counted on to carry the load but he has to do better than 17-56-1 (no receptions). No one else even reached these numbers! Watch the run O closely in September. Carr was only about 55% but enjoyed having rookie Cooper to throw to (8-124). Crabtree won’t stretch the field (3-21). I do expect the tight ends to contribute, since the rest of the WR’s are not at all scary to opposing defenses. The defense was not horrible, but also nothing special. Dan Williams, Khalil Mack, Curtis Lofton and Malcolm Smith all looked decent in the front seven. Even the secondary seems to be stabilizing but the starters are not quite ready to make a noticeable impact and the unit lacks ready to go backups. Unfortunately, the return D is still poor, even in August! There is also a danger that the current return specialists lack talent.

STRATEGY AND BOTTOM LINE ANALYSIS: As usual Oakland has a 4th place schedule. This year there is no Monday game, so Oakland will have stability in scheduling with 15 Sunday games plus the mandatory Thursday game, this time very late in the season. The bye week comes after week five, ideal for a new staff to make changes before it is too late. They open hosting Cincy. This could be interesting. Oakland has one just one opener in the last decade! They stay home to host Baltimore. Both of these teams made the playoffs in ’14 but can’t the Raiders get an early split? Weeks three and four see them at Cleveland and at Chicago. They are 0-3 at Cleveland but about 50% at Chicago, although the last two meetings were close losses. These two teams were NOT playoff bound, so why can’t Oakland be 2-2 at this point. Games 6-7 are at SD (close loss in ’14) and home to the Jets (bit better than 50%). Game #9 is hosting Minny, a team that they have fared well against but the Vikings are improved. The goal would be 4-3 from these games but is 3-4 more likely? They are going to need to steal another road win before December to be somewhat viable. Beating Detroit at their place won’t be easy, although the Lions have a poor record in games after playing rival GB. Beating Tennessee on the road is more viable, but Oakland lost to the Titans at home in ’14 and is 1-7 at their place in more recent action. Four of their final five games are vs. Divisional rivals, with the game in the middle a host of GB and Aaron Rodgers. BOTTOM LINE: WR Cooper is a real asset, and Jack Del Rio is an improvement. It’s still important for Oakland to win early, get that 1st road win, and reduce that -15 turnover ratio. I still think we’ll see a negative sack ratio. I like how this team is being built (finally) yet I had trouble finding even five wins in my initial game looks. Somehow I think they find five wins, but I was hoping for more based on roster and staff improvements. I don’t know if RB Murray holds up all season long, and I need to see if sacks can go up from 22 to my proposed # of 32. KEY GAMES: The 1st two games. 2-0 would be special. 0-2 would be awful. The Black Hole needs to deliver. Handicapping Tip: There’s not much to crow about when looking at long term statistical trends. Oakland is 3-13 ATS after playing San Diego, and I’d be careful to back them in their next game 11/1 hosting the Jets if they were installed as a home favorite.

TENTATIVE POWER SET: 22

 
Geez man, I'm not reading that after this n news.

Chaka, I believe the timing means that he doesn't get a vested very guaranteed salary for the season. I could be wrong, but this happening day after the first game make me confident.

He'll get the 8 mil, minus any suspension games, and if the cut him after 4 games that he played, they'll only pay 2 mill.

Again, zero confidence on his ability long term to pull it together, but we have the room, why not indeed?

 
Geez man, I'm not reading that after this n news.

Chaka, I believe the timing means that he doesn't get a vested very guaranteed salary for the season. I could be wrong, but this happening day after the first game make me confident.

He'll get the 8 mil, minus any suspension games, and if the cut him after 4 games that he played, they'll only pay 2 mill.

Again, zero confidence on his ability long term to pull it together, but we have the room, why not indeed?
Thanks. The only "why not?" I can see is the fact that McKenzie has put a lot of emphasis on avoiding character risk guys. The fact that McKenzie signed Smith actually makes me feel pretty good about the Smith's prospects for the future.

 
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I love the fact he came with us and turned down more money elsewhere (Jax, TB and StL)
Ken Norton Jr. and Justin Tuck were said to be big influences on him choosing Oakland.
We are not the bottom barrel option anymore!

Also think raiders knew about the charges coming, and assume it's good news in some form. Not a legal guy, tho.
Totally agree -- Raiders had to have done some research and dug for info to feel more comfortable about impending action.

 
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As a 49er fan I say.. you're welcome and enjoy.
As a niners fan, I say, anywhere else but OAK. Now, when Smith blows up and it turns out the recent issue was pretty minor, we'll have to be reminded every day about what we let get away. If Smith is close to his best, this gives OAK one of the best starting LB groups in the NFL and suddenly a potential playoff contender. That is the impact of a top flight edge rusher, the most important piece of a D. Great, great shark move by OAK. And I think I need to take a shower after typing that.

 
From a source on another forum who called the Smith signing two days ago:

Okay guys you saw my post 2 days saying we signed him but not many believed me which is okay. Tons of false info out there. Whatever all that matters is we got Aldon Smith. Now why will it work well here is some more inside info. Aldon and Justin Tuck have become good friends as of recent. Tuck is a vet who has taken Aldon under his wing and will help the kid and mentor him. I think it's a great pick up. I'm sure Tuck sold Mckenzie on this and the risk is def worth the reward. As far as how I knew this, the Satale signing,Penn signing, Garcia signing,DHB pick, Mitchelle Pick and other info is my high school buddy is very very high up there with the Raiders. Even when coaches get fired and GMs get fired my boy doesn't. He's been with the Raiders for years and it's because Al Davis hired him and his dad even worked with Davis. You don't have to believe me I'm just saying I haven't been wrong and all I'm doing is being you guys need before the media how can you hate on that lol.
 
johnadams said:
3optic said:
As a 49er fan I say.. you're welcome and enjoy.
As a niners fan, I say, anywhere else but OAK. Now, when Smith blows up and it turns out the recent issue was pretty minor, we'll have to be reminded every day about what we let get away. If Smith is close to his best, this gives OAK one of the best starting LB groups in the NFL and suddenly a potential playoff contender. That is the impact of a top flight edge rusher, the most important piece of a D. Great, great shark move by OAK. And I think I need to take a shower after typing that.
The dude is on probation and if convicetd would be his 3rd DUI in 10 years if I'm not mistaken. NFL suspension is the least of his worries. He could be looking at jail time.

I love Aldon as much as anyone and was hoping he would take the year off and try and get it together. I think he's a good guy who just can't get out of his own way. Wish him the best and still hold out hope he somehow makes his way back to the Niners someday, but odds are long the guy won't continue to make boneheaded mistakes.

ETA - to the above RE Tuck, Aldon has had an enormous amount of support from the organzaiton and guys like Charles Haley. He also was surrounded by some pretty good teamates in Willis, Smith, etc. It's not outside help that will fix him, he needs to figure this out for himself.

 
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Ok, let's get serious right now.

Should we go scoop the D for fantasy??? Front seven could be nasty this year.

 
So I have decided I want to drop money on a Raiders jersey. What do you guys recommend for a quality one that will last? Can legit ones only be bought at nfl shop? For now it's going to be Mack, I love what he means for us, eventually I want to get a old school Tim Brown one as well. Also sizing, I am 6' 166 and roll with a medium athletic shirt. Would a Xl be a swimming pool or is a large good as I always hear get them bigger

 
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Ok, let's get serious right now.

Should we go scoop the D for fantasy??? Front seven could be nasty this year.
I wondered the same thing until I looked into the schedule. Kinda rough. I'll check them out on Sunday and make a call.

 
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