2013 Raiders offseason thread

[Raiderz4Life]

God I pray we don't draft Ogletree like some people had us doing.

[Abaddon]

No chance. McKenzie seems pretty dead set against guys with character flaws.

[Abaddon]

Originally Posted by Black Bolt

There is no bringing Carlisle back. It shouldn't have happened last year.

This. Emphatically this.

[Abaddon]

Originally Posted by dra

Curious what you would do instead.

Clean house. We're not going to be competitive in 2013. Our best bet is to shed dead weight and get our cap in order.

Carlisle and Brisiel are/were awful. Let CC walk, cut Brisiel, and pencil Bergstrom and Nix into the guard spots. I guarantee you they couldn't possibly be worse.

Bear in mind that I did say pencil them in. I want to see us draft a guard at some point. Some sort of big, gnarly drive blocker. Nix and Parsons would be adequate reserve interior linemen with developmental upside.

They're guards, for hell's sake. Unless you're talking about a top flight guard, you really don't gain much by dropping large coin on them. Carlisle's minimum salary would be enough to pay both Nix and Parsons' 2013 salaries combined with money to spare.

[Abaddon]

Originally Posted by dra

2013 Raiders Offseason
Offense
-Resign Barnes. Until they actually bring in a better tackle we need to keep him around.

I'm not opposed to this, but only after the draft and once we've missed out on better, younger options. Barnes should not be a Plan A in any sense. Best to cut ties and go young.

-Resign Carlisle (for cheap) and Parsons. Good back-up linemen.

Already covered.

-Resign Myers if the money is right otherwise let him walk. He had a great year but is still only an average all around TE.

I'd let him walk and hope that some team is foolish enough to think his 2012 stats weren't a mirage. Let him sign elsewhere and contribute to our 2014 comp pick calculation. You'll start to notice that theme throughout this post.

-Resign Goodson. Solid RB

I was for this previously, and I'm still not against it. Just depends on whether or not he'll take a minimum type deal. RBs are far too easy to replace, and with our cap situation, every dollar counts.

-Restructure Palmer’s deal or look to cut him. Maybe talk to Arizona about a deal for Palmer.

If he doesn't take a significant paycut, he's got to go. If we could land a 3rd round pick for him, I'd be ecstatic.

-trade McFadden. I know that he has tons of talent but the Raiders have too many needs and no way to address them with their lack of picks and cap space. I’d rather have a couple more picks and let Goodson/Reece/Jones and one new acquisition run the show.

Sounds great. Trouble is, you're not going to get much. I'm thinking a 5th round pick, maybe a 4th at best.

I'm thinking we let him play out his final year, hope the scheme change suits him, and hope his next team signs him to a decent enough contract to help us with out our 2014 comp picks.

Also, Jones is probably getting cut. The staff just doesn't like/trust him.

-I’d also look to test the trade market with Terrelle Pryor. We just had a year where QB’s with similar skill sets took the NFL by storm. The staff does not seem like they have a ton of belief in the kid and there might be some GM out there who is willing to over pay for Pryor. This of course means they need to keep Palmer and find a QB to start grooming at some point.

Shouldn't have any bearing on Palmer at all. Neither guy is "the future." Neither guy was brought in by this regime. We could just as easily replace two suspect QBs as one.

But, again, we're talking about a guy who most likely has very little trade value. Pryor is only comparable to RGIII, Russell Wilson, and Colin Kaepernick from the waist down. His throwing mechanics are horrible. Not Tebow bad, but not good at all.

Best bet with Pryor is to try to work him into the offense as a WR/TE project. Maybe give him some reps as a kick returner. Probably won't happen, but it makes more sense than banging our heads against the wall pretending that he could be a starting NFL QB some day.

-Trade Brisiel. When we picked him up it was because he was a great zone blocking lineman. This is simple because we are not a zone blocking team anymore. Ship him to a team that does employ zone blocking and try to get something we can use in return (pick or player).

Absolutely no trade value whatsoever. Old, injured, and awful. Just cut him and be glad you get some cap relief.

-Let Jeremy Stewart walk. An upgrade can be had and needed if we move McFadden

Practice squad material at best.

-Sign a free agent RB – I would think we could get a Peyton Hillis, Shonn Greene, or Cedric Benson for Cheap and add them to the RB committee.

No. No veteran RBs. Definitely not any of the bums you just mentioned. Late rounders and undrafted guys. That's all we need. Maybe a young guy in year 4-6 of his career who's minimum salary would be a little more palatable. We just don't have the cap room to waste veteran type money on the easiest position in football to fill.

Honestly, after seeing Reece play halfback, I'd be content to roll with him as the #2 and try to find my lead back on Day 3 of the draft. Also really interested to see what this Olawale kid has to offer.

-Sign 1 or 2 veteran O-lineman. With our cap situation it will likely have to be OG’s.

We should be able to scrape up a tackle. Some half decent RT as a stopgap while we shop for a long term answer. Maybe that'll be Barnes again, though I feel like the team wants to move on from him. With the depth across the OL in this year's draft, I think the free agent market for vet OLs is going to be buyer friendly.

-Draft a OT in round 3 if one falls or draft from the next tier in round 4.

Really can't assign a position to a round. There's no telling what the board will look like. I'm hopeful we can land a fatty there, though, be it a T, G, or DL. But, if it's a WR or TE, I'll be okay with that too, provided the guy pans out. I guess that's the case with any draft pick, though.

Defense
-Resign Wheeler, Bryant, Carter, Slaughnessy, Burnett, Ross, Hanson, Adams and Mitchell.

You must not know about this salary cap thing.

Wheeler and Bryant are most likely gone. I've been banging the drum to get Bryant locked down, but...really...I don't think we'll be able to compete once he starts fielding other offers and weighing his options. I'm guessing the same will be true of Wheeler. Retaining either should be viewed as a real victory for the organization.

Carter is someone I'd like to see brought back as a nickel rusher. He's an older guy, and he's not scheme diverse. But I think he could be a good influence on any young DE/OLB types we bring in.

Shaughnessy...I like him as a 34 DE, and I think we'll be using a lot of 3-4 next year. Still, is he good enough to pay twice what a mid-round rookie would cost? Maybe. He is a pretty solid run defender, and he could possibly help free up the rush backer to his side. He should come cheap since he was so bad this past season.

Hanson...eh. Depends. We have to have CBs. Depending on what he's looking for, I could go either way.

Ross, Adams, and Burnett are either restricted or exclusive rights FAs. They're not going anywhere.

Mitchell is hot garbage. Let him walk.

Omar Gaither earned another year with us imo. He's average at best, but was light years better than that punk in the 55 jersey.

-Sign a free agent DT and LB to compete for a starting job. There are plenty of guys who are stuck in a depth chart that would be able to compete in Oaklands depth chart. I’d also look to covet some of these type of players in trades mentioned before.

Trade what? We hardly have any draft picks as it is.

It'll be interesting to see how we address the D-line. If the staff plans to keep using Houston as a standup DE/OLB, we're really in dire need of players here.

-If Asomugha...

No. He's toast. Let him go.

-Let Seymour, Giordano, Spencer, and Francie walk. None of them produce at their potential cap numbers.

Among others.

-Cut Kelly and McClain. Self explanatory.

Cutting Kelly goes without saying. Cutting McClain, unfortunately, will result in a net loss of 2013 cap space. Over 4 million, iirc. We can designate him a June 1st cut, but that mean we'll be looking at a cap hit in the 8 mill range in 2014. We're absolutely screwed with this guy. Have to cut him, but ugh. We'll have to cut someone else just to make cap room to cut McClain. Unreal.

-Draft the best defensive player available at #3 or trade down and amass more picks for defensive players. If we stay at #3 then we take (in no particular order) Moore, Milliner, or Lotulelei with the pick.

Milliner? At 3? Surely you jest.

At this stage, I doubt any of those three are considered top 3 picks. Some negative chatter coming in about Moore and Lotulelei, and Milliner just isn't on that level. Knowing that Star said fuggit and quit football once, and had a lot of trouble controlling his weight, really makes me not want to give him a lot of money.

I'm thinking we oughta roll the dice on Jarvis Jones. Dude's a legit impact player, and we need that. If we can get 6-8 good years out of him, I'd call that a win.

If we manage to trade down, awesome. I'm not going to ignore the offense, though. If we can trade down and get Warmack, that's a win.

Really trying to avoid letting Mayock sell me on Dion Jordan, but I must admit to being intrigued.

-Draft the BPA defensive, with all but 1 or 2 selections (maybe 3 offensive guys if we can amass a nice amount of picks).

Can't approach a draft that way. Trading down when we can, yes. Beyond that, BPA all the way. If that player is a TE or WR, take him. We don't have a single position, other than kicker, that can't be upgraded...or that doesn't need to be upgraded.

Special Teams
As much as I hate to do it, let Lechler walk. He deserves to get paid and the Raiders are not a team that can afford to spend money on a punter.

This decision was made clear when Reggie IR'd Marquette King. Hopefully the kid gets his consistency right. He's got a huge leg, but that every-so-often shank will get us killed.

[Abaddon]

Something worth keeping in your back pocket when trying to shoehorn players under our pitiful cap:

[dra]

Originally Posted by Abaddon

Something worth keeping in your back pocket when trying to shoehorn players under our pitiful cap:

I believe the NFL still counts vet min contracts against the salary cap at the 3 years of service rate despite what they actually make.

[Raiderz4Life]

I agree with pretty much everything Abaddon said.

The only thing I'm not totally agreeing with is Jarvis Jones. Personally I'd roll with Moore or Lotulelei, that Jones medical situation is too sketchy for my tastes.

[Abaddon]

A completely valid concern. It's taken me a long time to talk myself into not worrying about it. That may well prove stupid.

Like my old bookie told me once when I was staring too long at a sheet trying to pick a 5th game. "The longer you wait, the more money I make." Meaning, the more you overthink things, the greater the odds that you ultimately end up fooling yourself.


Star worries me too, though. This whole freaking draft class makes my ass pucker.

[thenewfeature06]

What do think about drafting Cooper at 3?!

[Raiderz4Life]

Originally Posted by thenewfeature06

What do think about drafting Cooper at 3?!

I'm going to assume you're just joking lol

Honestly, I would LOVE to trade down to the 11-15 spots or so since there seems to be good value there and pick up picks.

However, I think I'm going to hop on the Damontre Moore bandwagon.

[thenewfeature06]

He is rising and has been ever since the season has been over but yeah at 3 its a huge reach even though we can probably say he would start.

[dra]

Originally Posted by Abaddon

Star worries me too, though. This whole freaking draft class makes my ass pucker.

I agree, no one really stands out to me at that #3 spot that I think is clearly better than what we could get at 10 or 15.

[dra]

McKenzi wants to move Taiwan Jones to CB. I hope this is the back-up plan to the back-up's back-up plan.

[Abaddon]

He was moved to RB from CB due to need while in college. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if he proves to be a much more viable CB than RB. Because, let's just be honest, the dude ain't a RB.

Reggie isn't looking at the guy as a starting corner, so no need for anyone to have a seizure. He's just trying to give the kid a chance to earn a roster spot. He's quite good on STs, so it's worth the effort to find out of he can play somewhere other than in kick coverage.

[Abaddon]

Originally Posted by thenewfeature06

What do think about drafting Cooper at 3?!

I think it's pretty much insane.

Good player, but likely not even the top guard on our board. We're getting back to our downhill style offense. Similar to what we did under Hue Jackson, I expect. Similar to the way we ran the ball in 2000-2002. Cooper's athleticism is great, but we need a G who can move the LOS. That's not Cooper's game.

We'll have our athletic-ish guard in Bergstrom.

[Abaddon]

I think I'm on the "Dion Jordan @ 3" wagon presently. That'll change again in a day or two. I may well jump back to Jarvis Jones, though he kinda irked me by dipping out on the Combine.

[Raiderz4Life]

Dion Jordan or Damontre Moore for me. Star would be great but he has concerns and Jarvis too.

[Abaddon]

I'd be just as content with Warmack 3rd overall, honestly. I just want to know what it feels like to have a 1st round pick work out. The concept is so completely foreign to me.

[Donno]

Originally Posted by Abaddon

I'd be just as content with Warmack 3rd overall, honestly. I just want to know what it feels like to have a 1st round pick work out. The concept is so completely foreign to me.

Seriously, this is exactly how I feel. I would like if we dropped to 10-15 and got him if he wasn't already gone.

[nobodyinparticular]

Just wanted to throw it out there. I just beat Slade Norris' team in flag football today.

Discuss.

[Abaddon]

Pics or you're a liar.

[RaiderNation]

I'm on the same boat as the rest of you, still really unclear of who's he best option at 3 and a trade down to get a few picks would be best for us. If Star checks out to be alright I still think I'd lean that way, Dion Jordan would be interesting as well in our scheme being able to play all over the field. For some reason I'm not buying the Sharriff Floyd hype though, he'll be a top 15 pick but taking him at 3 would be a mistake IMO.

[Raiderz4Life]

I'm thinking imma jump off the Moore bandwagon and hop on the Ansah bandwagon. Him or Jordan

[Stash]

I'm not sure who I want, I don't follow the college game so much. I just hope whoever we get doesn't suck lol. It'd be nice to have a 1st rounder work out for once.