Well, here we are at 4-2, right behind the Chargers in the standings at 4-1. Before the Campbell injury, I would have said the division would have come down to the two of us and it would be about a 50-50 chance to win it. A lot has changed since that point. Campbell is out for a minimum of 6 weeks, and possibly for the season. The recovery timeframe is no longer a story because we dealt for Carson Palmer and he's here to stay.

I, for one, am a huge fan of the move. For the big arm Campbell had, his deep ball accuracy was hideous at times. How many times have you seen Campbell go deep, and you held your breath hoping for the big play, and the pass landed 10 yards out of bounds, giving the receiver no chance to make the play. Carson Palmer is one of the best in the league at throwing deep balls accurately. I think our long term outlook just got a heck of a lot better with Palmer on our side.

However, it isn't the long term that I'm looking at. Its this season. Both the Raiders and the Chargers have murderous schedules ahead. We both have to play the Packers, Lions, and Bears, as well as each other twice.Those 5 games are easily the toughest games left on the Raiders schedule. The Chargers also gotta play Baltimore, the Bills, and the Jets in the meantime. I still think every one of these "easy" games like we have against the Chiefs, Broncos, or Dolphins are absolute MUST wins. If we have these tough games ahead that we may or may not win, we surely better win the gimme games.

This week's game was penciled in as a W weeks ago. At home against the Chiefs minus Berry and Charles. But now we have QB uncertainty. If Boller starts, they will stack the box and force Boller to complete passes down the field, which I do not want to see. I think Palmer, even with limited time to prepare, is the better choice. Even then, if his rust plays a huge role and he ends up throwing a pick or two, it could cost us the game. We need to rely heavily on our run game, and I mean heavily. We also must get to Cassell like we did last year in week 17. If we give him time, Dwayne Bowe could be a serious pain, as his size and run after the catch ability is not something I want our secondary to be dealing with. If we can get Cassell out of his comfort zone early, and can jump on an early lead, we can just sit back and watch our running backs do work. 

Otherwise, we are in for a tough game with a shaky quarterback situation. If we lose this game to the Chiefs, and the Chargers beat the suddenly unimpressive Jets, we'll be 4-3 headed into a bye with the Chargers sitting comfy at 5-1. This game looks easy on paper, but its importance cannot be understressed.I think once we have our bye and face the Broncos, Palmer will be in synch and we will see the true potential of our offense. Until then, lets just win the game at hand. Is anybody else worried? Or is it just me?

Are you all nuts? I understand you support your team, just like I do, but stop comvincing yourself that Bey was the right pick. Before that draft, NOBODY on this site wanted Darrius Heyward Bey, and everyone that wanted a receiver said Crabtree. Now i'm reading all this stuff of how Bey was the right choice and Crabtree is a guaranteed bust. This is stupidity.

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"Al Davis loves speed". it is absolutely ludacris to say the Raiders will take heyward-bey with the number 7 pick. There is no way Jeremy Maclin OR bey will be taken before Michael Crabtree. Everywhere i look all i hear is "al davis loves speed". its like these writers are so un-creative that they just copy and paste what they read from one website.

On Yahoo's Ultimate Mock Draft, where every player in the NFL is avaiable for the draft, Michael Silver has the Raiders, at number 7 taking Chris Johnson, and he wrote:

"– Chris Johnson, RB. Yes, I am aware that Adrian Peterson is football’s best running back. I also know that the cornerback currently on the Raiders’ roster, Nnamdi Asomugha, is the league’s top cover man and would be an excellent pick here. But this is Al Davis’ show, and the man is a speed freak, albeit one with a snazzy overhead projector. When he saw Johnson race his way into the league’s top echelon of runners as a Titans rookie, Davis knew he had to have the kid. The opportunity to upset people in Tennessee – the state whose flagship university now employs Lane Kiffin – is an added bonus."

everybody likes speed, in the sense that your not going to take running back with a 5.4 fourty yard dash. jeez i want to kill someone.

I'm going to break this post into a couple of segments.

a) Raider's offseason moves

b) division rivals' offseason moves

c) upcoming draft

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Alright, in my previous post the comments had very mixed results based on who the Raiders should draft. I figured a poll can solve our problems.

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Being a Raider fan, for the past six years, the most exciting time for the Raiders is the offseason, where we look forward to the draft, and don't have to worry about losing just about every single game.  All the fans think they know who to draft. Some say Crabtree is a can't-pass-up-on-this-guy type of prospect. Others say Maclin is a burner the Raiders truly need. Some guys think Orakpo is perfect to get our defense to be more explosive. While none of these are horrible picks, i would almost HAVE to say that B.J. Raji out of Boston College is the guy for the silver and black.

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