Official Las Vegas Raiders Thread

I'm for it. He graduated in 2002 from Texas Tech. I started grad school there in 2003. Those were fun teams to watch, and I've sorta followed his career from there. I think he can be a very successful OC.

 

Let's go, AP! Raiders make it official.

 

Pierce is HIM!

 

That's a great f***ing pic. Just win, baby!

 

Keeping Kelly and Graham looks likely. Still need an OC as Hardegree is just too inexperienced at this point. Kingsbury could be headed to Chi-Town to be with Caleb Williams.

Bridge QB's wanted if we go there? Wilson to screw over the Donkeys? Mayfield though I doubt the Bucs would let him go. Still not sold on Fields. I do LIKE O'Connell. Doubted hard as a walk on in Purdue to start with.

 

CB - Rating vs. Projection
Hobbs 76 (69)
Robertson 70 (71)
Jones 68
Hall 53
Webb 39
Facyson 32 (60)
-Facyson missed a lot of time, so I guess he was the only "disappointment" here. Hobbs bounced back better than I'd thought. Jones was so much better with LV than with the Pats. He seems like a great fit and he loves playing for AP. He went from allowing a 106 rating with the Pats to a 63 rating with the Raiders.

Safety
Moehrig 83 (70)
Epps 79 (75)
Bennett 48 (65)
Pola-Mao 43
Teamer 32 (53)
Smith 30
-Finally Moehrig had his breakout season. Set career highs in tackles, INTs, sacks, and PDs. Held opponents under an 80 Passer Rating When Targeted. Good job, young man.

 

Players on Reserve/Future Deals
David Agoha DE*
Cornell Armstrong CB
Anthony Brown QB
-mobile QB who played a little with Baltimore
Ben Brown G
-Posted 25 Rating as a rookie in 2023
DJ Fluker T
-Once a solid OL, hasn't been on field since 2020
Cole FOtheringham TE
-Posted 28 Rating with LV
Jaydon Grant S*
-Had some solid INT numbers in college, on and off roster with LV this season
Tyreque Jones S*
-UDFA
Tyreik McAllister RB
-Rushed for 1000 yards twice at Charleston; returner, too
Marquan McCall DT
-Posted 48 Rating with Carolina in 2022
Sincere McCormick RB
-On and off roster the past two seasons with LV
Jalen McKenzie T
-On Seattle's roster this season
John Samuel Shenker TE*
-On LV and Arizona's roster this season.
Nesta Jade Silvera DT*
-I've covered him under LV's DIs.
Elerson Smith DE
-Posted 18 Rating with NYG in 2022.
Charles Snowden DE
-Minimal PT with the Bucs.
Sam Webb CB
-Posted adequate 56 Rating with LV in 2022, only 20 Rating with Carolina in 23.
Kristian Wilkerson WR
-"Starred" in preseason with LV in 23. Best was 39 Rating in 2021.

Reserve/Injured
Brittain Brown RB
Darien Butler LB
-24 Rating with LV in 2022.
Jesper Horsted TE
-Covered under LV's TEs.
Kana'i Mauga LB
-Covered under LV's LBs.
Michael Mayer TE*
-Covered under LV's TEs.
Dalton Wagner T*
-I wrote about him on page 84 of this thread.
Austin Walter RB
-Some experience with the Jets in 2021.

 

The Current Roster
Only players under contract here. Sorted by need, most to least.

OG/C
Parham 77
Brown 25
Fluker
-We've got one starter under contract.

TE
Mayer 66
Fotheringham 28
Gentry 13
Shenker
-One starter. Bring back Hooper?

RB
White 58
Brown
McCormick
McAllister
-White might be the guy, but no one else is proven.

DI
Tillery 67
Butler 64
McCall 48
Young 37
Jade Silvera 26
Agoha
-Maybe move Wilson here. Jenkins returns? This is a spot I'd like to see us spend $ on.

CB
Hobbs 76
Jones 68
Bennett 48
Webb 39
Facyson 32
Armstrong N/A
-I think we're in decent shape with Hobbs, Jones, and some backups.

T
Miller 81
Munford 72
Wagner
McKenzie
-You've got your two starters but nothing after that.

WR
Adams 87
Meyers 81
Tucker 61
Renfrow 54
Wilkerson 20
Turner 11?
-We can ditch (or, if it works, restructure) Renfrow and still be good.

DE
Crosby 95
Koonce 73
Wilson* 56
Robinson 38
Snowden
-I think we're good here. Two studs and possibly an improve Wilson, but you can always add depth.

S
Moehrig 83
Epps 79
Smith 30
Grant
Jones, T.
-We've got our starters.

LB
Spillane 87
Deablo 71
Masterson 59
Burney 39
Smith 29
Butler 24
-We can probably run with this crew. Masterson could use an upgrade as our 3rd LB, but Burney might grow into that role.

I don't know where to put QB
O'Connell 72
Garoppolo 60
Hoyer 40
Brown
-I imagine we find a way to move on from JG and Hoyer. I'm personally okay with AOC unless someone falls into our laps in the draft.

 

Tom Telesco?

 

Not what I was expecting. Gotta do some more research. Chargers have definitely been more successful than the raiders in his time, but that’s not saying much.

 

They have a better roster than ours until this season. Not much of course, but our coaching and drafting have been abysmal some of the time. Theirs have been worse coaching wise.

 

You can skip down to the bottom if you want to see the more interesting takeaways.

Tom Telesco's Offenses
Year: major offensive skill players, record (projected wins)

2012: had Philip Rivers, Ryan Mathews, Malcolm Floyd, and Antonio Gates
7-9

Telesco Takes Over
2013: Philip Rivers, Ryan Mathews, Keenan Allen, Antonio Gates
9-7 (9.2)
Changes: Floyd stayed with the team but began fading with age.
Allen: drafted 3rd round. Second best WR drafted.

2014: Philip Rivers, Branden Oliver, Keenan Allen, Antonio Gates
9-7 (8.0)
Changes: Mathews was injured but did well in his 6 games.
Oliver acquired as UDFA.

2015: Philip Rivers, Melvin Gordon, Danny Woodhead, Keenan Allen
4-12 (6.0)
Changes: Melvin Gordon drafted 15th overall. He or Gurley are the best Rbs drafted that season.
Danny Woodhead was brought in as a Free Agent.

2016: Philip Rivers, Melvin Gordon, Tyrell Williams, Dontrelle Inman
5-11 (7.7)
Changes: Tyrell Williams was a UDFA.
Inman was also a UDFA.

2017: Philip Rivers, Melvin Gordon, Keenan Allen, Tyrell Williams
9-7 (10.4)
Changes: nothing significant

2018: Philip Rivers, Melvin Gordon, Keenan Allen, Mike Williams
12-4 (10.4)
Changes: Williams was the 7th overall pick. He's probably the 4th best WR of the draft.

2019: Philip Rivers, Melvin Gordon, Austin Ekeler, Keenan Allen, Mike Williams
5-11 (7.8)
Changes: Ekeler was a UDFA.

2020: Justin Herbert, Austin Ekeler, Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Hunter Henry
7-9 (7.0)
Changes: Herbert was the 6th overall pick. In a stacked draft class, he's one of the top four QBs, and two of them were drafted before him.
Henry was drafted 1st off the board among TEs in 2016. He's one of the top 3 TEs in that draft.

2021: Justin Herbert, Austin Ekeler, Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Jared Cook
9-8 (8.8)
Changes: Cook was brought in on a FA deal.

2022: Justin Herbert, Austin Ekeler, Mike Williams, Josh Palmer, Keenan Allen
10-7 (8.7)
Changes: Palmer was drafted 77th overall in 2021. He has the sixth highest AV for a WR in that draft, despite being 11th WR off the board.

2023: Justin Herbert, Austin Ekeler, Keenan Allen, Josh Palmer, Gerald Everett
5-12 (7.1)
Changes: Everett came over in a FA deal in 2022. He's had probably his best two-year span.

Item 1: Luck
Actual Record: 84-92 (84-95 team)
Projected Record: 91.1-85.9
-I know the actual record matters, but the Chargers have been the victims of some bad luck (I think the Raiders beat them on last-second plays at least twice during this span - in fact, twice in one season?).

Item 2: UDFAs
Look at these UDFAs the Charges acquired. The value they've gotten from these dudes is insane.

Oliver's 8 career AV is higher than 10 first or second round picks from that draft. Nearly half the players drafted never became a starter for a season, but Oliver did. His value was about a 4th rounder. Huge acquisition.

Williams's career numbers would have made him the 8th best WR drafted in 2015. Nearly everyone who outperformed him was a first to third round pick. I think Williams was a third round value.

Inman's 19 AV was tied for the 11th best among WRs who were drafted. He outperformed every WR drafted after the 3rd round except for Martavis Bryant (tied).

Ekeler's AV is better than all but 6 players from the 2017 draft. CMC (72) and Kamara (70) are the only RBs better. Ekeler's 69 TDs in that span are also better than all but those two. These guys are game changers. CMC came off the board 8th. Kamara was 67th. Ekeler has been almost as good as any RB taken, and given that all the big names were off the board by the 4th round except Aaron Jones, Ekeler was probably a 3rd round value.

Item 3: Continuity
QB: The Chargers changed QBs once, from Rivers to Herbert, and they seem set there. They used a top pick to get their guy.
RB: Mathews to Gordon to Ekeler. They get their RBs and stick with them for their rookie contracts before moving on.
WR/TE: Year over year, the Chargers retained 67% of their top players at these positions.

Item 4: Context
The Chargers have won 46.9% of their games with Telesco as GM.
That's better than 12 teams and tied with the Titans.
The Raiders have won only 41.9% of their games in that span, better than just six teams.

The Raiders are 0-2 in playoff games in that span. Literally no team in the NFL has been in fewer playoff games.
The Chargers are 2-3. That's a better win% than 12 teams and more wins than 7 teams (tied with 2 others).

Telesco doesn't have to be a stud to be an improvement.

 

I appreciate the sentiment. I don't know of anyone in Raiderland who's stoked about this one.

 

I was surprised not moved BUT he could not have made it through management for 29(?) years if he was incompetent. He had to deal with the Spanos meddling and Staley being terrible. To be continued.

 

Two things Telesco won't have to handle which he is questionable at. OK bad at. Pick the coach and handle the contract #'s. Pierce in the house and Delaney does the latter.

Heard that Telesco wanted to fire Staley much earlier BUT the Spanos family were too cheap to let it happen and pay the remainder. They wanted him to live with his mistake.

 

I'm optimistic, too, but I wouldn't go so far as to say stoked