SB Nation User Blog: Ozraider

R.I.P. Ray Ray Russell

Ozraider — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:35:55 -0000

Although anyone can see JaMarcus Russell's play on the field this season at times this season one very under reported factor is the fact that in April this year JaMarcus's Uncle and Father figure Ray Ray Russell passed away.

There is a great article at:

http://www.sacbee.com/raiders/story/1927287.html

ALAMEDA – He was his rock. His deflector. His father figure.

And now, he's gone.

Ray Russell, uncle to Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell, passed away at 42 years young April 17 of congestive heart failure. He was everything to the face of the Raiders franchise, trying to keep temptation at bay for a youngster with $60 million in his pocket and wanting to keep his nephew grounded.

JaMarcus Russell is the Quarterback for the Oakland Raiders and has the world against him right now he is also a 24 year old who has recently lost the closest person in the world to him.

I have no evidence that this is a factor other than my own logic but it would have to be on his mind.

There is the obvious argument that if he is emotionally unstable at all he shouldn't be playing but I really don't see any great benefit in playing Gradkowski (or Garcia) as he isn't taking us to the playoffs either and these young guys are only going to learn together by going through the hard times together.

I know he is playing pretty shitty at the moment but to me he looks like a good player in bad form rather than just a straight out bad player, he isn't going anywhere we might as well get behind the guy and push him to success rather than failure.

At least this year we have a bunch of young guys with potential to root for than a bunch of pissed off vets.

R.I.P. Ray Ray Russell

PLAYING RAIDERS IS LIKE A SCRIMMAGE!

Ozraider — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:21:51 -0000

Antonio Pierce has come out and said that playing the Raiders felt like a srimmage:

"I do not like knocking teams," Pierce said. "But right now, they're struggling. We're playing that game the other day and, honestly, it felt like a scrimmage, like a practice. It felt like we were going against our offense [in a controlled setting] as far as the tempo.

"There was no vibe of trying or effort from the Raiders at all from a defensive standpoint against their offense. We're getting three-and-outs. You don't hear nobody [saying], 'Hey, let's go!' trying to pick the guys up, rallying them, getting guys fired up. There was nothing. It was quiet. A guy gets sacked or somebody gets beat, they just get up. It's not like there's yelling or no kind of [emotion] about the way they were playing.

"It was shocking to be out there in that game and get that kind of feeling."

What the F is going on with this team, seems so far from week one when the showed so much promise., how bad is it when the shining light is a loss? I've been a big defender for the most part but how can anyone support this? hopefully this will be a spark.........hopefully

Ill never stop supporting the Raiders but this cuts, I think bringing back Gruden is the only option and giving him as much control as he wants, he clearly still has a affinity for the Raiders and would bring the discipline and passion back.

PFT - Antonio Pierce says playing Raiders "felt like a scrimmage"

Poll

What would be your first move if you were the boss after the season?

Install Gruden as Head Coach

57 votes

Install Billick as Head Coach

18 votes

Keep Cable on for another year

3 votes

Get Michael Vick

14 votes

Other (Please Comment)

11 votes

103 votes | Poll has closed

Vick???

Ozraider — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:27:45 -0000

Now let me be clear I have not given up on JaMarcus but even though I think he could be a dominant player, Stevie Wonder can see that JaMarcus is not cutting the mustard at the moment and unless there is some serious improvement REAL FAST even Mr Davis is gonna see he needs to hit the bench and that maybe this aint gonna work out but the question is who would QB the team.

Many people have already touted the prospect of drafting bradford, Tebow , Snead etc etc but as we have found drafting a QB is a craps shoot and a potential very bad investment.

MY ANSWER: MICHAEL VICK

Vick is the prototype Al Davis player with a Cannon arm and real speed and with a year under his belt he will want to start and with Kolb playing so well in Philly even if McNabb retires i cant see Vick getting the Job so it is highly likely that he will be available.

This would be a classic Al Davis signing and Vick will have had a year of image rehabilitation so the heat will be a little off although im sure we would kop it still just because we are the Raiders but having Vick, McFadden, Bush, Schillens, DHB and Murphy that would be some SERIOUS play making ability. Hell if the Eagles go crazy and go with Vick and Kolb over McNabb we should sign McNabb either way one of these guys will most likely be available and although we haven't seen anything from Vick yet to show that he is really back but would surely be a major upgrade on what we have seen so far.

Ideally id like to restructure JaMarcus's contract and sit him behind Vick till he's ready (if ever) as it would kill me to see us let him go and have him star somewhere else.

Off-season just gone was not the right time for the Raiders to go after Vick but next year is a whole different story.

Plus I tried it on Madden 10 and it is SWEEEEEEET!!!!! :)

NEW RAIDERS.com

Ozraider — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 09:10:38 -0000

NEW RAIDERS.com

New official Raiders.com site, LOOKS AWESOME much better than the old one.

Currently has some great Richard Seymour vids - I'm so impressed by this guy CLASS ACT!

I Know this is college but god damn Jamarcus is an absolute beast when his is comfortable. It is...

Ozraider — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 02:16:08 -0000

I Know this is college but god damn Jamarcus is an absolute beast when his is comfortable. It is only a matter of time before he gets his feet under him at this level and with his skill set could be a dominant player in the NFL. He has already shown the ability to manage games and throws very few INT's . Hopefully we can really build the team around him which seems to be the case finally I got a feeling JaMarcus is going to prove everybody wrong this year. JUST WIN BABY!

HELP!!!! I want to buy a new Raiders Jersey for the season but can only find a limited selection...

Ozraider — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:50:19 -0000

HELP!!!! I want to buy a new Raiders Jersey for the season but can only find a limited selection online - the usual guys - McFadden and Russel which I already have, DHB and Nnamdi.

I really want a Mike Mitchell or a Chaz Jersey so does anyonw know any sites that I may be able to purchase from?

Thanks

Just played first game of Madden 10

Ozraider — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 13:26:14 -0000

Just played first game of Madden 10

Awesome game much more fluid than last game and really feels like a game of football where last year it seemed a bit plastic. Much more detailed and varied animations a must have. In my first game beat Donkeys 28-14 Mitchell was all over the field with a pick a sack and a pressure that resulted in a int return for a TD by Namdi (although the commentary pronounces it Aso-moog-a - very annoying). Jamarcus has a rocket and the run game is MUCH better than last year) LOVIN IT!

Depth chart released.

Ozraider — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:49:55 -0000

Thanks to Bloodshot13 on previous post pointing out that the Raiders Depth Chart has been updated on raiders.com I thought it was worthy of its own post.

Offense
WR	12 Darrius Heyward-Bey	15 Johnnie Lee Higgins	87 Shawn Bayes/ 10 Jonathan Holland
LT	75 Mario Henderson	70 Khalif Barnes (inj.)	65 Seth Wand
LG	76 Robert Gallery	79 Paul McQuistan	51 Chris Morris
C	64 Samson Satele	71 John Wade	51 Chris Morris
RG	66 Cooper Carlisle	63 Mark Wilson	78 Marcus Johnson
RT	74 Cornell Green	72 Erik Pears	69 James Marten
TE	80 Zach Miller	86 Tony Stewart	83 Brandon Myers
WR	81 Chaz Schilens	18 Louis Murphy	19 Todd Watkins/ 89 Nick Miller
FB	41 Lorenzo Neal	46 Oren O'Neal	45 Marcel Reece
RB	25 Justin Fargas	20 Darren McFadden	29 Michael Bush
QB	2 JaMarcus Russell	7 Jeff Garcia	5 Bruce Gradkowski/ 3 Charlie Frye
Defense
DE	91 Trevor Scott	77 Matt Shaughnessy
DT	93 Tommy Kelly	94 William Joseph	92 Derrick Gray
DT	61 Gerard Warren	67 Desmond Bryant	73 Ryan Boschetti
DE	99 Greg Ellis	98 Jay Richardson	97 Greyson Gunheim
OLB	55 Jon Alston/ 57 Ricky Brown	58 Slade Norris
MLB	52 Kirk Morrison	57 Ricky Brown	50 Isaiah Ekejiuba
OLB	53 Thomas Howard	48 David Nixon	54 Sam Williams
SS	33 Tyvon Branch	34 Mike Mitchell	30 Jerome Boyd
FS	31 Hiram Eugene	24 Michael Huff
CB	21 Nnamdi Asomugha	22 Justin Miller	39 Darrick Brown
CB	37 Chris Johnson	26 Stanford Routt	35 John Bowie
Specialists
K	11 Sebastian Janikowski	4 Ricky Schmitt
P	9 Shane Lechler	4 Ricky Schmitt
KC	59 Jon Condo	80 Zach Miller
KOR	22 Justin Miller	15 Johnnie Lee Higgins
PR	15 Johnnie Lee Higgins
H	9 Shane Lechler

Things I thought were interesting were that Fargas is listed as the starter with Bush at the third back spot, im assuming that McFadden is number 2 as he will be all over the field and DHB is listed as the 2nd reciever but will be interesting to see what happens when Walker comes back. Alston and Brown are both listed as starters for the OLB spot.

AHHHH WE ARE SOOOOO CLOSE - BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Depth Chart from www.raiders.com

Is Crabtree a relevant subject on this blog?

Ozraider — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:17:04 -0000

As you may have seen there has been a quite spirited debate in regards to the relevency of discssing Crabtree (Or Moneytree as they are calling him over on the Niners board) and his issues on this site so I think the best we to reslove this issue between the family we call the silver and black pride community i figure we should just have a poll.

Some argue that because of the situation regarding Crabtree dissing the raiders in the media, the reaction to not being picked by the raiders at the draft, the ridicule by the media for taking DHB instead of Crabtree and the fact that it is simply football related that the topic is relevant. Others argue that because he does not play for the Raiders that it is not relevant.

If we vote that crabtree is not relevant then Crabtree posts will be banned from this blog and if we vote that it IS relevant then we will have a daily Crabtree watch post chronicalling the day to day life of Mr Crabtree........well maybe not but we will be free to post crabtree posts whenever we like :)

For those of you unfamilier with the debate see the post titled "Michael Crabtree may re-enter the 2010 NFL draft" http://www.silverandblackpride.com/2009/8/6/979961/michael-crabtree-may-re-enter-2010

Poll

Is Michael Crabtree a relevant subject on this blog?

YES

50 votes

NO

38 votes

88 votes | Poll has closed

Crabtree holdout probable?

Ozraider — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:55:39 -0000

Found this at Rotoworld.com

According to beat writer Matt Maiocco, "there are indications that it will be a challenge for the 49ers to get (Michael Crabtree) signed before the start of training camp."

"The sides are still far apart in contract negotiations and Crabtree's agent, Eugene Parker, is known for holdouts. Crabtree wants to be paid like a top-five player because that's where he "should have" gone. Crabtree is already far behind the 49ers' other receivers as he missed the entire offseason program (foot). This could be more trouble"

Full article: http://www.rotoworld.com/content/Headlines.aspx?sport=NFL&hl=146300&rwr=1

I know we haven't signed DHB yet but everything points to this being smooth negotiations I think its funny that he wants to paid as a top-5 player becasue that where he 'should' have gone - WHAT A JACKASS! and maybe if he wasnt such a douchebag who rolled 20 deep to pre draft workouts and cries like a baby because he is a pussy as well as over inflated stats due to the system he played in, he may have gone top 5.

If I went to my company and said "I should be the CEO of this company so I should get CEO money", they would laugh in my face and rightly so. The DHB decision keeps looking better and better.

And dont forget Mr Crabtree you have a appointment with one Mr Mitchell over the middle August 22nd DONT BE LATE! but something tells me he may conveniently 'still injured' or 'holding out' for this game.