2019 Oakland Raiders Discussion

He rated averaged on PFF. He's a liability to blow coverage, but he also picked off 4 passes last year. Adding him won't hurt.

 

Allen is very good at run support and is a sure tackler from the games I've seen.

 

I think people were high on him a few years back, but he has never produced. He's a very good backup, but if he's your starter, I wouldn't expect too much.

 

Was used in dime packages...was not good covering the slot wide-outs.

 

...so far, all the current signees are all south of 30. Then we have the draft.

 

Reading reactions to Oakland's FA period is hilarious and sad. So many people hate Oakland they can't be objective. I saw one site gave the Hudson signing a C. Others saying no one wants Oakland's money. I think it has been a nice success so far.

 

Don't call me crazy, but I want Steve Johnson.

 

I saw all of that... It's been that way the last few seasons. OK by me. As far as building towards success...there's more than one way to skin a cat no offense intended to feline lovers as I am one. Raiders are methodically gaining strength while the other incumbents in our division are aging.

 

Johnson is a good possession receiver and will give Carr some reliability in the mid range yardage. I remember him torching our secondary a few years back.

 

T-Rod on today's SI MMQB, the panelists who are more intelligent then any Joe Hack out there gave positives to the McKenzie's moves. They recognized our signees as "ascending" not the stop-gap fillers of an offseason ago. We're shoring up inadequacies as far as starters across the board so far. Oh did I not mention... we still have the draft. Yours truly trying very, very, very hard not to be too giddy.

 

Clearly we shored up our biggest weaknesses. Now we can draft best available - and I'm looking at WR, OL, and DB. We can absolutely address those weaknesses in the first few rounds of the draft.

 

So now that we are no longer in the running for that other Murray...it is being speculated that Ryan Matthews [only 27!] is now on our Plan B. Yes, he's missed time but he won't be carrying all the load with the other horses we have in the stable. We have gotten lotsa Plan B's. 10 to 14 Plan B's that are solid much better than two Plan A's plus 20 Plan C minuses and D's...

We still have money...and lest I forget, that draft thing and stuff.

 

I wouldn't hate bringing in Matthews, as long as it wasn't for more than we signed Helu for. We'd have two of the top 5 most elusive backs from last season.

 

Maybe it would be comparable $$$. Matthews would be a nice change of pace back. Helu and Reece will contribute in the passing game. It looks like a big puzzle to allocate minutes and touches among them but it is a nice problem to have. Tice is already on record that he wants the O-Line to blow up holes for the ground game and keep time of possession heavily in our favor.

As an aside...there was a receiver whose name I never heard of ran a 4.28 on the 40. Jokes all around how the late Al Davis would have instantaneously picked him even if he couldn't catch a cold wearing nothing but boxers in a snowstorm. Shades of James Jett and Darius Heyward-Bey.

 

^No Matthews... He'll be an Eagle.

 

Not official yet, but...

James Dockery CB
More a special teams player than a guy who will be in the DB rotation, Dockery has logged 29 solo and 7 assisted tackles in four seasons. He was ranked as "Not Enough Information" to grade last season.

He did post a .03 Win Probability Added, 1.3 Expected Points Added, .26 Expected Points Added Per Game (not terrible given how little he played), but he did it on a low tackle factor.

 

Rumors Raiders are pursuing Greg Hardy. He's an old time Raiders pick. I think I'd rather have Suh stomping on people than a dude beating on his sorta girlfriend (I'm not sure about the relationship there) - and then the fact that she can't be found...

 

Hudson at Center.
Lee Smith at TE.
Helu at RB.

Rumors of Gresham at TE.
Other than that I'm not sure.