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Someone at the Raiders HG was listening to us . . . (We're just kidding, but it wouldn't have hurt them.) We refer to the suggestion here in the News section a fews days back that the Raiders try Edgerton Hartwell in the middle and move Kirk Morrison to the strong side. It appears they're going to take a look, at least, at exactly that, or so think both Chronicle beat writer David White and Bay Area New Group guru Jerry McDonald. Assuming Hartwell's knees and Achilles' hold up, it makes perfect sense.
Source(s): "Silver&Black" blog (San Francisco Chronicle), "Inside The Oakland Raiders" blog (Bay Area News Group/InsideBayArea.com)
Why DE Greg Spires was cut by Tampa Bay last February? Simple: money. The man was due to make $3.8 million in 2008. Whew!
Source(s): "Buc'em.com" (www.bucem.com), cited in today's RealFootball365.com blog post
An excellent article by Sports Illustrated's Don Banks from last Friday answers the question, when is a roster limit of 80 no longer a roster limit of 80? The answer is, once the roster exemptions previously allowed by NFL Europa are gone and 80 really means 80, not 86 or 87. We commend the article to readers' attention.
Where Are They Now Dept.: Ex-Raider Tyler Brayton's strength against the run is being counted on in Carolina, where the coaches hope to move Julius Peppers from left end to the right side, allowing him to rush the passer from the open (weak) side while leaning on Brayton to provide stouter run support opposite the opposing team's strong side. Details here.
We read somewhere today—Jerry McDonald's blog, perhaps?—that DE Greg Spires hasn't signed with the team yet. And to be precise, all that was originally reported was that the Raiders had reached agreement with Spires. The team has got to be right at its roster and/or salary cap limits, and that may be causing a pause before the club commits to signing Spires.
We saw also that the Raiders have inquired about Koren Robinson but have yet to get a response. We didn't think the team would be able to pass up a chance to at least talk to his agent. But, talented as Robinson is, he has also shown a real proclivity for self-destruction over his career. And the Raiders have not proven to be the league's best baby-sitters exactly (Darrell Russell, Barret Robbins and Dave Dalby come to mind).
There's a post we'd like to call to readers' attention, which appeared yesterday (May 9) in the "Shutdown Corner" blog published on the Yahoo! Sports site. It's titled "Howie Long didn't want his son to be a Raider?". On this site, naturally, it appears on the Articles page.
The post draws upon a Dr. Z mailbag column from SI.com, if you're into taking things back to their source.
We dislike the blog's author and readily admit it—this is a jerk who ridiculed Herschel Walker for writing about his DID disorder, thinking it was funny. But the facts stated in this post, assuming they are true and accurate, are somewhat shocking, and could readily explain why Howie Long might not be overly fond of principal owner Al Davis.
As is the case most years, ESPN.com wizard John Clayton is the first (we believe) to publish the rookie pool allotments for 2008. The concept is explained on our Rookie Salary Pool page, and Clayton goes over it each year, too. (So, too, generally, does Mike Florio in his "Rumor Mill" blog.) Based as it is on the number and slotting (position) of each team's draft picks for a given year, Kansas City—with 12 draft choices, and No. 5 in Round 1—led the parade for this season with $8,221,790. But don't envy them: Clayton observes, "Not only do they have two first-rounders to sign, but they have a second and three thirds."
The Raiders, who tied for the smallest draft class this year, were awarded $4,119,700 to sign their rookies—a figure roughly in the middle of the league. Note that this pool covers all rookies, not only the ones who were drafted, so it puts a practical ceiling on every NFL club's ability to sign endless rookies.
Source(s): "Silver&Black" blog (San Francisco Chronicle)
Semi-official word from the Raiders, relayed via both Jerry McDonald's and Jason Jones' blogs, is that Ed Hartwell will be given a shot at earning a starter's role at the "Sam" position—the strong side linebacker filled largely by Robert Thomas last year. The rationale given is the desire/need to improve the team's run defense.
We hate to be party-poopers, but anyone who's watched much of the Raiders the past two years has seen that MLB Kirk Morrison, as great as he is in pass defense, is less than stout against the run. And at 240 pounds, that's not likely to change. Morrison doesn't have a big enough frame to add much more weight (neither do Thomas Howard or Robert Thomas, for that matter). It's rare to see Morrison stop an opposing runner going forward into the hole; he virtually always drags down opponents' runners from behind. Not what you what a middle linebacker doing.
It may be heresy, but we'd try Hartwell in the middle and Morrison on the strong side, where his athleticism and good hands could aid in pass coverage. Recall that Morrison had a very good rookie season playing on the outside while Danny Clark was still on the team.
Yesterday the Raiders embarked on yet another wannabe rehab project in the form of MLB Edgerton Hartwell. The Chronicle and Jerry McDonald's blog reported the gist of this guy's story—a monster start to his NFL career with the Ravens, then a big free agent contract with Atlanta, followed by three years of injuries. His most recent contact with an NFL team was with Cincinnati, which signed him in May, 2007, then gave him an unconditional release by Cincinnati just before the beginning of the 2007 season. Hartwell sat out the regular season.
Now about to turn 30, both he and the Raiders are hoping he can come back. In his sophomore season (2002), at Baltimore, filling in when Ray Lewis was hurt, he had a mind-boggling 191 tackles for the season. He's doubtless worth a minimum salary, incentive-laden contract, and we'll bet that's just what he got. Good move for the player and the team.
Hartwell is built like a traditional middle linebacker "oughta" be built—6-1, 250 lbs. Well, actually another inch or two in height wouldn't hurt, but we like our inside backers at 250 or more. Think back to Matt Millen . . .
Source(s): "Inside The Oakland Raiders" blog (Bay Area News Group/InsideBayArea.com), San Francisco Chronicle, Yahoo! Sports
Over the last few months, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat has pretty well dropped off the face of the earth as far as covering our beloved Raiders is concerned. Once one of six Bay Area dailies that could be counted on for articles about the Raiders on most days, it has by and large ceased Raiders coverage entirely save republishing an occasional Bay Area News Group or Associated Press story.
So it's good news that, at least for draft time, The Press Demo's Phil Barber has been given his pen back again, so to speak. You'll find a bog post by him dated Apr. 21 and articles from the 21st and 23rd, all linked in the Articles section.
Barber's one of the better writers who used to cover the Raiders, so enjoy him while you can!
We used to say it often here on the site, but grew tired of the repetition: scroll down, readers, well beyond the fold. It's why browser color schemes enable differentiation between new links and visited ones.
We very often can't cover all the sites we visit every single day, so we play catch-up with some of them. Also, some sites post things late in the day, sometimes after we've been and gone. Readers should never assume that everything new is necessarily at the top of a given section; rather, we order links by date of publication.
Case in point why you should always check back a few screens: there's a good deal of good material from the 18th (yesterday) on the Sporting News site that we've only gotten to today. It's linked in the draft section here on this site. There's a radio interview with Chris Long that's less than inspirational, but still, it is Howie's kid. And there are position previews for several groups by ProFootballTalk.com's Mike Florio, who's very knowledgeable and opinionated enough to be interesting.
Mindful of yesterday's note in this section that free agency for RFAs had ended, we saw today that Pro Football Weekly reports that OLB Isaiah Ekejiuba was re-signed on April 15. He was tendered at the low level—$927,000—so per the CBA that's what the Raiders must pay him.
That leaves just four free agents for the Raiders, all unrestricted. Of the four, we'd venture to guess that the only one who might yet be re-signed (and only if the Raiders can't find a more suitable backup for JaMarcus Russell) is QB Daunte Culpepper. Personally we liked RB ReShard Lee a lot, but he looks to be a victim of a numbers game at his position.
Late update: Today closed out restricted free agency for 2008. There's a good piece by ESPN.com wizard John Clayton analyzing this year's trends.
For all you trivia freaks, Raiders.com has answered the burning question, what jersey number will new corner DeAngelo Hall wear this year? No. 23, says the roster.
It had been clear from the lengthy period he was shown as without a number that no one was going to take the team's franchise player's number away. We refer to No. 21, worn by Nnamdi Asomugha now and previously, in Atlanta, by Hall.
The team's newest Raiders, cornerbacks Michael Waddell and Duane Starks, remain number-less for now.
Source(s): Raiders.com
Another free agent signing to report, plus a correction.
Signed yesterday was CB Michael Waddell, a three-year vet drafted in the fourth-round by Tennessee in 2004. He played in all 16 games in both 2004 and 2005, then suffered a ruptured patellar tendon (kneecap) requiring surgery and spent the 2006 season on injured reserve. He attempted a comeback in 2007 but was waived after training camp.
The Raiders have obviously decided to take a gamble on his knee and probably gave him a very low-risk contract. Waddell is 5-10, 180, 27 years old and attended North Carolina.
The correction is that Duane Starks was signed on the 15th, not the 16th as we reported yesterday.
Source(s): Raiders.com, NFL.com, Rotoworld.com, San Francisco Chronicle
The Raiders finally re-signed S Jarrod Cooper today. He's an extremely important member of the special teams coverage units.
The Raiders also re-signed veteran CB Duane Starks, 33, today. He was on the team for the first three games of 2007 but was released when the roster exemption for late-arriving rookie QB JaMarcus Russell expired.
Starks signed a one-year contract, undoubtedly for the veteran minimum. Because of an arcane provision in the salary cap, that almost certainly means he'll get the fat salary but the team will only have to pay (and count against the cap) the cost of a third-year player; this year that's $445,000.
Source(s): San Francisco Chronicle, Pro Football Weekly, "Inside The Oakland Raiders" blog (Bay Area News Group/InsideBayArea.com)
Where Are They Now Dept.: One-time promising young FB John Paul Foschi, released by the Raiders in 2006 in one of then-coach Art Shell's inscrutable personnel moves, signed a two-year contract with division rival Kansas City today.
Source(s): Associated Press
With the draft set to kick off two weeks from yesterday and little in the NFL news world except draft speculation, we'll focus today on updating our draft links section and our summary of pundits' predictions whom Oakland will take at No. 4.
Late update: There's an informative article available that touches on the Matt Stover-led effort to find a replacement for players union chief Gene Upshaw. Stover's e-mail made the news this week when it was leaked to the media, but Liz Mullen writes that it was fallout from a failed coup attempt against the former Raider which occurred at the union's annual meetings in Maui in mid-March.
The article which started the brouhaha came from ESPN's Chris Mortensen on Apr. 9.Source(s): SportingNews.com, ESPN.com
Late update: We wrote earlier (at the foot of today's news) that we'd seen at least one report that Miami is talking with Vernon Gholston's agent(s). We've since read multiple confirmations of that, and that a Florida paper, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, reported the Miami negotiations with both Jake Long's and Gholston's representatives today, so it's pretty well established fact, and not guesswork, we'd now say.
Source(s): SportingNews
"Rumor Mill" editor Mike Florio, who's now also a frequent contributor to SportingNews, has kicked up a nice ruckus with one of his latest "league source" reports. (Aren't they always anonymous?) Florio wrote yesterday that there are "strong indications" that the Raiders will select Ohio State DE/OLB Vernon Gholston in the coming draft. Florio made it emphatic enough that both the SacBee's Jason Jones and Yahoo! Sports picked it up today, almost as if it's gospel truth.
Meanwhile, Pro Football Weekly, which has at least as much credibility as Florio and arguably more, wrote yesterday that principal owner Al Davis is "intoxicated" with Darren McFadden, not Gholston. Says PFW, quoting a Raiders source, Davis is down on Ohio State players since he traded up to take Rickey the DUDley back in 1996 and Dudley fizzled big-time. That's an entirely plausible theory. Dudley actually flopped as a Raider twice—remember that then-Head-Coach Norv Turner brought Dudley back to Oakland's 2005 training camp, after he'd played in Tampa Bay for a few years, to see if he could contribute, but the Ohio State product didn't make the team's final cut on Sept. 3 of that year.
It all goes to prove that at draft time, what sells is guesswork, and everybody engages in it—everybody.
If you think this is convoluted, consider the shell game Bill Parcells is playing in Miami, which has the No. 1 pick. He has not-very-secretly met with representatives for Michigan T Jake Long but not with agents for Virginia DE Chris Long, in whom Miami is thought to be just as interested. And to hedge his bets—some think Parcells will try to play off the top four or so players against one another in order to get a better contract with his ultimate selection—late today we saw at least one report that said (guessed?) that Miami is talking to Gholston advisors as well.
Source(s): ProFootballTalk.com ("Rumor Mill"), Pro Football Weekly
Guessing as to when the league may release the 2008 schedule, Florio noted, "NFL Network is still scheduled to air at 4:30 p.m. EDT on April 17 a two-hour edition of Total Access, which presumably is the tentative time for the release of the schedule and the analysis of the matchups."
Source(s): ProFootballTalk.com ("Rumor Mill")
Source(s): Associated Press
Arkansas RB Darren McFadden visited Alameda yesterday. It doesn't mean the Raiders are likely to draft him, necessarily. As one of the beat writers—don't remember which—observed, you can bet the Raiders will have each of the top six or seven prospects in for a visit, interviews, etc. before draft weekend rolls around.
For what it's worth, Raiders writer par excellence Jerry McDonald states the case for drafting McFadden very well today in his blog post—while adding that tomorrow he'll offer the case against.
Our own preference: probably NT Sedrick Ellis from USC. We think defensive tackle is the greatest position of need, and Glenn Dorsey of LSU, the top-rated tackle, will be long gone before the Raiders pick at No. 4. The clincher for us came on the FOXSports video clips from USC's Pro Day—linked in our draft section on April 6, when they appeared— where Ellis is asked which team he'd like to go to. He replies, "Oakland." He notes he's a "Southern California boy" and says he thinks he could help the team in Oakland.
We like that. He's not scared off by the bad publicity the Raiders have had this off-season. And although earlier polls had Ellis lower than a top 5 pick, in his Pro Day last week he shaved three-tenths of a second off his already-good 40 time. For a 300-pounder, the guy can motor! He's moving up in the list with every passing day now, so we don't think he'd be a reach.
Source(s): InsideBayArea.com, "Inside The Oakland Raiders" blog (Bay Area News Group/InsideBayArea.com), FOXSports.com
In comments from Lane Kiffin included in a San Francisco Chronicle article, beat writer David White wrote: "Strong safety Michael Huff 'is on our plans, definitely' Kiffin said after the 2006 first-round pick was floated as a trade candidate. 'Michael playing back and Gibril (Wilson) playing down.' "
That translates to Huff moving to free safety and new Raider Gibril Wilson, who played at free last year for the Giants, switching to strong safety. It makes sense given Huff's speed and body type.
And there's been no official comment from the Raiders organization, but it's evident that they let Chris Carr go for a little over $900K by not matching Tennessee's offer. Stoopid . . . They're giving millions to questionable producers like Kwame Harris and Kalimba Edwards. Carr, in only three years as a Raider, became the team's all-time leader in kickoff returns. Remember that the Raiders have had some pretty dynamic returners over the years—it used to be an Al Davis signature, that any Raiders team had powerful return units. Guys like Greg Pruitt, Harold Hart, and Kenny King were dynamite returners, and little Chris Carr passed them all in just three seasons.
We often only see interesting items a day or two (or more) after the fact, what with the time we spend physically maintaining this site.
We commend to our readers a piece from April 2 by Ira Miller, an excellent writer who knows his stuff, about the labor issue that is likely to dominate NFL news in the later part of this year—whether the owners choose to opt out of the CBA. Miller provides background and corrects some common misunderstandings as well as offers an appraisal of the present balance of power in labor relations between owners and players. Whether or not you're in agreement, Miller's article is definitely worth reading. We've linked it here, but it's also in the Articles section for April 2.
Source(s): The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com
There was a very interesting piece of commentary in a draft column yesterday on the Pro Football Weekly site.
Raiders fans who've been following the big name players expected to go early in the first round in this year's draft probably know that there are two big-time prospects at defensive tackle, LSU's Glenn Dorsey and USC's Sedrick Ellis. Nearly all pundits rate Dorsey over Ellis, with Dorsey considered a top three pick and Ellis in the top ten to twelve. Dorsey's heavier and thought to be somewhat more dominant. What reservations there are about Dorsey have to do with a hairline tibia fracture he had and whether it's entirely healed.
Southern Cal held its Pro Day this week and, writing about NT Ellis, PFW's draft expert Nolan Nawrocki observed,
The Saints' new D-line coach, Ed Oregeron, who helped recruit NT Sedrick Ellis to USC, put Ellis through a series of workouts, and the Saints could use help on the inside. However, after Ellis dropped 11 pounds from the Combine to his pro day and cut his 40-time more than two-tenths of a second from an average hand-held time of 5.3 at the Combine, Ellis is not expected to last until the Saints' selection at No. 10.
"He's the real deal," one longtime evaluator said. ""He battled (Chiefs DL coach Tim) Krumrie hard. He got after it in his positional workout. He worked out great. Oakland might have to look at him a little more closely after how he performed today."
The Sports Xchange's Rob Rang, also in attendance, was similarly impressed by Ellis' improved times and other measurables which helped his stock.
You can find these original articles on the draft links page (current articles section) for April 3.
Source(s): Pro Football Weekly, The Sports Xchange/CBS Sports
Quotes of Note
"I don't know, man. It's going to be hard. He's put in all these different bad situations to where he doesn't have a chance, you know? When you know you need to stop the run and you don't get anybody to stop the run. . . . He just doesn't really have a chance, because somebody else is in control all the time."
-- Ex-Raider RB Dominic Rhodes in a Sirius Radio show hosted by Pat Kirwan, when asked if coach Lane Kiffin has a chance to succeed in Oakland, 4/29/08. Rhodes said he thought Kiffin hadn't really wanted to draft Darren McFadden but had been overruled by the majority owner.
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