Al Davis Needs To Hire a GM

R3ZZ — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:44:17 -0000

Color me pissed after draft day. Whie I expected us to go with Heyward-Bey I was hoping crazy Al would prove me wrong. I was hoping with Tom Cable takng the reigns he would straighten Al up like Parcells did to Jerry Jones. I guess not. Anyway here's my thoughts on the pathetic draft we turned in.

Darius Heyward- Bey (Grade-FAIL)

I absolutely hated this pick, with Crabtree still on the board this pick deserves a -50 on a scale of 1-10. Yes, Bey ha all the speed you want, but does he have agility? No, he's a straight line runner that needs 3-4 steps to make cuts, he won't be shedding DB's in the immediate passing game. Another thing, with all that speed is it really worth it? KC has one of the fastest safeties in the league, Denver has the greatest CB in the league, and San Diego has arguably the best CB tandem in the entire NFL. Bey's speed will be for naught if he can't bump off of these guys with strength that he does not have.

Michael Mitchell (Grade- EPIC FAIL)

Really we traded back for Michael Mitchell with Ron Brace still on the board? NT was one of our greatest needs and Curry could have been serviceable for another season but Al drafted Michael Mitchell, a 7th round prospect. I really shouldn't go into the fact that 6 safties rated higher than Mitchell went in later rounds.

Matt Shaughnessy (Grade- FAIL)

Really? A fifth round prospect in the third Al? Given, there wasn't much choice in the DE market but in situations like these you go after another position and draft the guy one round early in the fourth not two rounds early in the third, third round picks are valuable. Also the fact that only two DE's (one higher rated than Shaughnessy) were picked before our next selection kind of pisses me off.

Louis Murphy (Grade- A+)

Finding Murphy this late in the draft was a no brainer. An early third round prospect in the fourth? I'd take that any day, then again, if you got ten bums off the street nine of them would take him, so it didn't take Al much Brain power. The fact that Murphy has an injury history may very well make this pick a very Raideresque BUST. But as for now I'm predicting a better rookie season for Murphy than Bey.

Slade Norris (Grade- WTF!!?)

Slade Norris!? Holy shit Al what the hell were you thinking. I bet every GM went "who?" after this pick. He's not from OSU, or Oregon, no he's he's from tiny Oregon state! I guess Al, being faced with the dilemma of having to reach on every pick finding himself in the 5th round looked into the rookie free agent pool. Really Zack Follet was better value for Detroit and they got him in the 7th.

Styker Sulak (Grade- C)

I would have given this grade a B had we not reached for Shaugnessy in the third. Sulak belongs exactly where he was drafted but we drafted a DE in the third? We wasted a pick on epic proportion with either this or the third round pick. There were so many needs, there's no reason to go DE twice with Burgess on the roster.

Brandon Myers (Grade- Meh)

It's the 7th round. Really we could have gone for a sleeper NT here but Al feels the need to draft a TE when we have one of the better TE's in the league. Myers is good value here but we really should have gone elsewhere with this pick. But hey, I expect at least 5 of these picks to be cut within two seasons already, why should I expect any more out of the 7th?

There's still hope to be found in Oakland

R3ZZ — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 00:45:48 -0000

Let's face it having Al Davis as an owner isn't exactly fun. Of our last 10 first round picks only two have made it to the pro bowl and one of them were a kicker. Al Davis once again hired an offensive minded coach to head us into 09' despite seeing coach after coach fail in this predicament. We just saw two of the better secondary men (Gibril Wilson and DeAngelo Hall) in the NFL leave Oakland for no compensation, and our huge investments in Terdell Sands, Tommy Kelly, and Javon Walker have all been for naught. Despite all the adversity there is hope to be had in Oakland.

Free Agency

Oakland has been extremely quite in free agency when contrasted to last off seasons spending spree ala Al Davis.
Signings by the Raiders include Jeff Garcia, Samson Satele, Marcus Johnson, Khaliff Barnes, Erik Pears, and Bruce Gradkowski.
That's four offensive linemen and two quarter backs. at least two of those offensive linemen will start in 2009 in Satele and Barnes. I'd say our LT position is pretty set with Henderson manning that spot after a surprising breakout season in 08.

The Draft

Speculation says the Raiders will take a WR in the first round in the draft next week. I personally would love to see that happen, however I don't want to see Oakland take Jeremy Maclin or Darius Heyward-Bey. I want to see Oakland draft Michael Crabtree. Could you imagine how much destruction Crabtree would cause with Zach Miller, Jamarcus Russel, and Darren McFadden on the same offense?
While Maclin and Bey are faster, Crabtree is the most NFL ready wide reciever in this draft. Heck people said the same about Tedd Ginn (Maclin), Robert Meachem (Bey), and Dwayne Bowe (Crabtree), and who panned out better? I think the answer is painfully obvious to us.
Many may argue that help at NT may be more imminent but I plea to you please stop sipping the Rajii juice. He's vastly overrated and his rushing buddy Ron Brace is much more effective and can be had in the second round. Help at RG can be found in third round prospects such as Fenuki Tupou and Herman Johnson.

Looking to the future

Oakland has a lot of reasons between the draft and free agency to believe it has an offense that could compete in the upper echelons in the league. If Al Davis shapes up and gives us a solid draft we could be in competition with San Diego for playoffs.
The Chiefs could surprise this year. They have just about every position filled out for their new 3-4, and their offense is starting to look down right scary. Still they've done nothing to adress the worst pass rush in NFL history so it may not count for much.
Denver is in shambles. McBonehead went and threw a perfectly fine playoff contender into rebuilding mode, the scary thing about Denver is that it has two firsts for the next two drafts.

Conclusion

The AFC West is getting strong and very young. Oakland, Denver, San Diego and Kansas City may very well be the next NFC East like divisional powerhouse, and Oakland has all the tools to be a top contender in this division for a long time provided Al Davis drafts well THIS YEAR.

SB Nation User Blog: R3ZZ

Al Davis Needs To Hire a GM

There's still hope to be found in Oakland