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| Rebuilding Is New For The Raiders |
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Monday, October 22 2007 @ 06:42 PM PDT
Contributed by: Raiderfans |
 Written by Raider30 at NFLFANS.COM
Those of us who are longtime Raider fans know that Al Davis does not rebuild he simply retools. So are the Raiders in the midst of rebuilding or simply retooling?
Believe it or not there is a difference. With rebuilding I think a team goes in with the mindset that this is going to take 2-3 years as we rebuild from the ground up in many places. With retooling a team takes the approach that we are close and if we add a few key ingredients here and there we can be a winning team now.
My approach or let me say the approach that I had hoped the Raiders would take in the draft was the one that we as Raiders fans are used to. I wanted the Raiders to go out and get a player that was going to have an immediate impact on this team... or at least try to do that. I felt with our defense being solid and with decent WRs and a decent couple backs, we could add a few key ingredients here and there and make a run at the playoffs this year... if you have read my posts in the past six months, you know what my hope was in the draft, so there is no need to say it again for the hundredth time... nevertheless, the Raiders didn't listen to me.
Instead the Raiders did what I think everyone expected when Al saw JaMarcus Russell and that was to take the guy with size and the big arm. It was a match made in heaven... or at least heaven as seen in the eyes of Al Davis.
What is interesting is that the Raiders did not stick with the model for rebuilding, but instead then took to retooling as well. In fact, this whole offseason has been a series of mixed messages. We traded away an extremely talented WR who is a headcase to add a fourth round pick (rebuild). We then trade away our other fourth round pick to rent a QB who has been a major disappointment for his past teams and add a WR who has not lived up to the hype when he came out of college with the hopes that these players might help us now (retool)... actually Williams in himself is a mixed message. In addition, we added players like Culpepper, Rhodes, and some vets along both offensive and defensive lines like Newberry and Warren. These are normally not the type of players a team adds when it is rebuilding. These are players you add when you are retooling, but draft picks like Russell and Bush are players drafted looking past the present and focusin the future alone.
One other strange twist on the year, and it really went somewhat unnoticed was that with the trade line approaching, the talk was that there was interest in Andrew Walter. I realize that with Josh McCown's injury we needed another QB, but a team that is rebuilding might take that opportunity to add a pick or two and let go of a player that is right now little more than an emergency QB. Clearly he does not have a future in Oakland unless Russell does not pan out, but with what we paid (#1 overall pick, big bonus, big salary, letting other playmakers slip by us in the draft) that is not an option. The Raiders could have easily traded away Walter to get a pick or two and then gone out and gotten an emergency QB like Rattay or even someone like Jeff George... there are plenty of QBs that would love the opportunity to earn a paycheck sitting on the bench hoping for an opportunity to play again. The fact that the Raider prefered to hold onto a player with no future in this organization leaves me scratching my head. Yes, he is cheap and he knows the system, but... nevermind.
Finally, the extreme makeover that was done with the coaching staff also adds an interesting twist to this year's Oakland Raiders.
We are a team caught in a kind of limbo. We are doing everything we can to win now even trading away draft picks to add players who might be able to help us now, but at the same time we are using high draft picks on players that have no hope to help us win now, but in a year or two or three.
Watching yesterday's game was a painful experience. We seem to be so close and yet we are so far away. Maybe the painful aspect of all this is that we don't have a clear picture of where we are going. It is all up in the air right now... actually not all of it, but much of it.
What will this team look like two years down the road? My guess is that JaMarcus Russell will be our QB, Zach Miller and John Madsen will share duties at TE, and hopefully Bush will be our starting halfback... I suppose we could probably argue Lechler will still be punting for us and Gallery will probably be at RG since he has finally found a position, but is there much else that we are truly comfortable with saying?
Are Jerry Porter and Ronald Curry really the best WRs we have? I love them both, but neither player has shown any consistency at all this year. The same with Lamont Jordan. What is the plan we have for Rhodes? Or Fargas? Our offensive line has some young players on it, but are these really the players that we are planning on moving forward with or will we just continue to add aging veterans each year. Don't get me wrong, veterans are important to bring stability to the team, but are we building a line that we can truly say will play together as a unit for more than a year. Good offensive lines don't just happen over night and they don't just happen by adding players here and there to fill in... there is no cohesiveness.
Looking at our defense, I really am happy with the direction that we have gone. There is a good mix of veterans and youth with the idea that there is enough youth that we can see this defensive unit play together for the next five years getting stronger and stronger each year. The main problem with our defesive unit is that they seem lost at times. We are missing assigments at key points in each game. Coaching has to correct this, but we have the potential to be strong for years to come.
Speaking of coaching (going back to the offense), Kiffin needs to get a clearer picture of what he wants to do and where he sees this team going. We are a team that wants to pound the ball on the ground, but when we put it in the air almost every pass is safe. We are cannot pound the ball if defenses know that we are not going to come after them in the air. We did see one deep ball and a few intermediate passes, but these almost seem like afterthoughts. If they are an afterthought for us, then defensive teams do not need to worry about them and they can instead focus on taking away the run. Watching our gameplan yesterday (if you can call it that) just seemed as if we were sitting in the dirt trying to draw up plans as we went along hoping something might work eventually. The play calling just seemed to random. Kiffin and the offensive coaches need to decide what they want to do on offense and find a way to keep the defense on its heels trying to find a way to stop it. Right now it isn't a challenge. They know what we are going to do for the most part. They just need to be prepared when we throw out that one or two unexpected play each game that it doesn't go the distance.
I guess I have gone on enough. Hopefully some of this makes sense. More likely it will just sound like the ramblings of a frustrated Raider fan hoping some time soon that Al Davis will figure out whether or not we are rebuiding or retooling and that our present team will eventually find some consistency... at least enough to play a complete sixty minute game.
Written by Raider30 at NFLFANS.COM
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