My thoughts and hopes for this team

[Burgesskills]

Here’s my thoughts and hopes for the Raiders

First off, I hope Mark Davis stays patient and sees this through. I hope he gives McKenzie the time to turn our beloved Raiders into a contender.

There are key players that I hope stick around and changes that I hope really happen:

I hope Allen can see that the zone blocking scheme isn’t for D-Mac. The kid came into the league in the zone blocking scheme and didn’t do much. He started to develop once they brought in a power blocking scheme. I said at the beginning of the year, that he’s no fit. He lacks the patience and vision to be a good fit. He needs a hole he could hit with authority, to get into space in the open field to break tackles and make defenders miss. I honestly hope he finishes the year strong and the team moves him for the most value possible. If not, I really hope Knapp is gone, along with the ZBS.

Both sides of the ball has some talent, I hope key players stick around on the offensive line. He’s struggled this season, but I like Veldheer and think he could be a franchise left tackle with some fine tuning. I love Wiseniewski and think he could be a beast at Center or Guard. I think we need to build the line around these two guys.

Reece is a weapon, he is big, quick, can catch…I think he needs to be involved more. Move him around and create mismatches with him.

I like Moore. He’s had some trouble with catching balls this year, so hopefully he works during the off-season. Streeter and Criner could develop into reliable targets. Jacoby Ford, my biggest hope is this guy could stay healthy. He is such a weapon. During his rookie year he scored catching the ball, on returns, on end arounds and reverses. I love this kid, if only.
I would like to see Pryor start a few games this season, just to see what he could do. I know McKenzie and Allen didn’t spend a 3rd in the supplemental draft on him, he was strictly Al’s guy, but he may be able to do something. Obviously, he hasn’t been impressive enough to even dress for a game this season, but he needs to see some live action, during the regular season.

I know many of you want to see Palmer stay, but I honestly hope he is gone. Yes, he’s been decent and yes, he’s kept us in games, but I think keeping him around will hold this team back in the grand scheme of things. It’s time to find a young QB to develop the team around. I think Leinart could be a stop gap, the same as Palmer. I find it funny how you guys want to see one of the greatest punters of all time, in Lechler to be cut for Marguette King, a rookie punter who played in a few pre-season games. You want to because Lechler is too expensive and getting old you say….funny. Considering wherever our offense stalls Lechler still drives the opposition deep in their own territory. Just get rid of a perennial all-pro for an undrafted rookie on the practice squad. Ironic.

I like Brandon Myers, he finds and creates space. He has done way more than anyone expected. At times, he shows he can catch the ball, but he has also shown he drops the ball. I wouldn’t mind if he sticks around.

I think it’s time for DHB to go. I thought he could build off last year, but he disappears at times and his route running is still atrocious. It seems like he tips his routes and even with all that speed, DB’s could see what he is doing.

Defensively there are very few bright spots, but some to like. I hope Houston, Bryant, Huff, Burris, Bartell are all back.

I think Houston is a good young player that could develop into a dominant player. I think once Seymour and Kelly are gone, he’ll step up. I like him and Bryant on the line.

During the off-season, I think Burris will pack on muscle and get a little bigger and be great against the run. The kid is a solid tackler and is all over the field. He’s a young leader.
Huff has been decent at corner, but I’d like to see him go back to S. Bartell, if he could stay healthy could be a solid CB2. The Raiders has always had a CB1 that could cover and I hope the team finds another shut down Corner.

I want to see Gio and Branch gone. Branch is fast, but misses a lot of tackles and gets beat in coverage, easily. He’s out of position and isn’t tenacious enough.
McClain needs to go. He is lazy and shows no passion or fire. He lacks leadership and is an off the field dummy.
I hope the defense finds a leader, either Moore or Te’o in the draft. The team finds a way to create pressure on the QB to rush throws and cause turnovers.
Special teams: Janikowski is fantastic and I hope Lechler stays.
I hope during his second season McKenzie continues putting his stamp on the team and shows the direction this team is heading. I’d like to see him sign a major free agent and he makes a trade that can allow us to accumulate picks.

[CrashMan510]

Good post.

The team this year is a ship with tons of holes and McKenzie is trying to fix these holes with duck tape. We need to sink the ship and build a new one. I really like McKenzie's attitude towards this mess, hes straight forward and hes going to cut guys straight up. IMO if things go well(and by well i mean we get a top 5 pick this year and the #1/#2 pick next year) we should compete for a playoff spot by the 2014 season.

On offense we need to get rid of Knapp and get a competent OC(0 excuse for how bad the running game has been).

O-Line- Carslie needs to gtfo, hes had a horrible year and hes old as ish, we need to drop him. Our RT situation has to get fixed, Willie Smith is hot garbage and Khalif Barnes is old and just average, we need to get younger on the Line too. Brisel is a lock for the rest of this year and next year, he needs to play better if he wants to be here after the 2013 season. Veldheer and Wiz are locks here, both young and have potential

HB- I woulden't mind seeing McFadden get traded for a pick in this years draft there are a crap load of good young RB's who i would love to see on the team going forward(Jonathan Frankling/Stepfan Taylor/Joe Randall are all going to be beasts who are going to fall because of how devalued the position has become). Goodson is a great back up and i would love to see him stay on the team and Tawian Jones isn't going anywhere, he's been an ace on Special Teams and he has a crap load of talent. Reece is a beast and he's the type of player that we need to keep around. Owen Scht need to GTFO, his last names says it all.

TE- Myers has been solid for us but he's a FA next year, he's inconsistent and he's put up most of his good numbers during crap time just like Palmer. He's the type of player that Al would overpay, we need to let him walk and let Ausberry(who's been great during the limited time that he's played) and Gordon get more PT. Im really excited about both of them.

WR- We're loaded there. Moore, Streater, and Criner are keepers. All 3 of them have lots of potential and we need to let them get their PT. DHB isn't going to get any better imo, hes a FA after 2014 and if we could get a pick for him i'd be happy. Jacoby is going to stay next year and he needs to play for his job.

QB- Get rid of Palmer and start Pryor, I said it. Palmer is old and if we can nail a pick for him we should pull the trigger asap. It's a win-win if we start Pryor and this is why, Pryor is young and if he has a solid season we can move forward with him, if he sucks as most think he will he'll lead us to the #1 pick and we'll get a chance to draft Clowney/Lee/or a QB. PryorFor2013

Defense

D-Line- Kelly = Old Garbage, Seymour = Old Garbage, both of them need to get out of the team asap. Shaughnessy has sucked this year, he's great against the run but he's been horse crap as a pass rusher, we need to let him walk. Lamar Houston is garbage as a pass rusher on the outside but he's young and he needs to be moved inside to reach his full potential imo. We need to resign Bryant and (hopefully) start himat DT for 2013, we need to see what he can do with a full seson under his belt. I've seen enough of Tollefson, he's flat out garbage. Im not going to speak on Crawford because I haven't seen him play at all, he'll have to impress the coaching staff in TC/practice to stick around.

LB's- Burris is doing alright for a 6th round rookie, keeper. Phil Wheel has been solid but he's on a 1 year deal and we can upgrade that position, let him walk. Mcclain is out so thats good. We seriously need to get some depth at LB too.

DB's- Band aids everywhere. Keep one of the two guys on 1 year deals, Bartell/Spencer, and get young players at DB to fight for a job. Branch and Huff aren't going anywhere next year and both of them need to play for there job for 2014. Giordano is trash and im 50/50 on Mitchell, woulden't be upset if we kept him/let him walk.

Special Teams

P- Let Shane walk and Marquett King time

Seabeast/Condo- Keep em

at the end. F 2013, here we come 2014. It's late and the post is probably full of bad spelling, f it lol
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[G]

I agree with most of what has been said. Except I'm keeping Palmer if he wants to stay.
Pryor looked like hot garbage in pre-season...

i've got eyes and he must develop more to even dress for a game.
I'm revamping Special Teams...Condo, Seabass and Lechler are all overpaid! If it's rebuilding time then save me the many millions right there.
DMC?!? If there's an offer I'd take it, but I doubt there is.
In FA I'd be getting 2 players to play next to Wiz and JV. Bree gets another season, but if we got young talented C and LT. I'd move JV to RT and Wiz back to LG

[dawsonleery]

Good read. I disagree about Branch though. He is trying to do way too much. The secondary is a complete a mess. I wouldn't be surprised if only Branch and Hanson return, that's it.

Huff could come back on a reworked contract... Back to FS, but I would bring someone in to compete with him.

[ch8878]

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[OakRaiders3828]

Darren Sharper just said that he thinks Mike Vick will be a Raider next year due to Allen being with him in Atlanta (and Knapp but he better be gone)
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O A K L A N D R A I D E R S
Joe_is_the_best on the sig!

[bitty]

[Raidin]

Really don't get the idea of dumping the ZBS for a guy who can't stay healthy for more than 50% of our games.
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[JTagg7754]

Good breakdown of our receiving corpse.
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[Silver&Black88]

My thoughts on your thoughts:

Offense:

- Nailed it on McFadden. Perfect analysis.

- I agree that we need to move away from DHB and his terrible contract for next year. Unless he restructures, he's gotta be a goner. Which sucks because he's one of our best team guys and our young WRs all look up to him.

- If it makes sense monetarily to move away from Palmer, so be it. I'm so done with awful contracts. We aren't winning with him and if we're paying through the @$$ for that then I'd like to stop if possible. If the difference in money is negligible I'd rather keep him since he could win us games if he had a better supporting cast and knows our system. If Knapp's gone, who the hell even knows. I'm going to be fine with whichever way Reggie goes on this one, I think.

Defense:

- I have high hopes for Burris too. Hope he can refine his game this offseason. Understanding assignments and gaps, tackling technique and coverage all need work. Sounds like a lot but he's not getting the time he needed to refine his game since he's been forced into starting and learning on the fly. He's just adapting to the pro's and learning how to play the game at the NFL level instead of fixing problems in his game. The reps he's getting now are going to be invaluable next year though. As long as he works hard in the offseason, I think he can become an above average LB next year. Could see us moving him to MLB this offseason too.

- My feelings on Branch are in between how I feel about Palmer and DHB. He's got heart but not a great player. I'd keep him if it makes sense financially; he's a good locker room guy and I'd like to try to address bigger needs before SS. It wouldn't break my heart to get rid of him either. It's another one of those things where I'll just leave it in Reggie's hands. If we keep him, he has to get better though.

- No mention of Bilukidi, but I like what I see from him when he gets his chances. I'd like to try to get him some more reps. Maybe 4 or 5 series' a game. Seems like he could be a good rotational guy next year.
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[oakdb36]

[big_palooka]

[NCOUGHMAN]

time for the youth movement. im all for sitting some old guys and letting some young guys get playing time.
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[holyghost]

[JTagg7754]