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News Archive
Jan. 3 - Mar. 27, 2008
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Even later update: We came across a great piece in Pro Football Weekly combining analysis and history, "Hard-nosed / PFW looks at the best ever to play each spot in the 3-4 defense." There's great commentary by none other than Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Merlin Olsen on the 3-4 defense and what made it work, and a poll by PFW of various retired coaches and players on the greatest ever to play in that defense. One Raider makes the first team, and another receives what amounts to honorable mention.
Don't forget that the Los Angeles Raiders—like a majority of teams in the NFL during the 1980s—played the 3-4 for a period of years, including their Super Bowl XVIII team of 1983.
Late update: We came upon an hilarious blog post ridiculing KC Squaws President/GM Carl Peterson because his franchise has proposed a new rule for the upcoming owners meetings banning players from having hair long enough that it obscures the player name or number on the back of their jersey. Included in the post is a photo of Peterson, who wears his hair slicked straight back in what is commonly referred to as a pompadour.
Very much like Al Davis used to wear his when he still had more hair . . .
Source(s): "Shutdown Corner" blog (Yahoo! Sports)
Yesterday RealFootball365.com's Os Davis posted his list of Five big first-round Raider busts. That's not unfair, since he'd led off a day earlier with what he categorized as the franchise's six best first-rounders. But at least a part of this "bust" list seems skewed to us.
Not that the Raiders haven't whiffed in the first round before. At times, they've done so in spectacular (ly bad) fashion. (The Raiders first-round history is available here on the site.) It's been observed that when Al Davis misses, he misses big. Thus our curiosity that Mizzou T John Clay didn't make the list. Drafted in 1987, if memory serves he never played in the NFL, period. Pittsburgh DE Bob Buczkowski, who always makes this sort of list, at least fiddled around a little for a season or so before he was gone.
Instead Davis includes Curt Marsh (1981), whose career, though cut short by injuries, included starting at guard during the periods when he was healthy. We'd suggest that WR Jessie Hester (1985) might have been a better (worse?) choice. Hester had great speed but couldn't catch, a minor drawback for a wide receiver. Worse yet? Oh, yes . . . How about 1993's S Patrick Bates of Texas A&M, the loser who simply decided his "heart wasn't in football?" When he quit the team—by not showing up for training camp at El Segundo—he couldn't even bring himself to talk to anyone in the front office; they had to guess at his mental state.
Then again, looking to the team's history just since its 1995 return to Oakland, one could always cite Tyler Brayton, he of the umpteen positions. Brayton's effort and positive attitude have lengthened what would have been a very brief career if based on skills alone.
Late update: Where Are They Now Dept.: DE Chris Cooper—dubbed "Little Howie" during his stint with the Raiders for his feisty attitude reminiscent of Howie Long—signed a one-year contract with Seattle after spending the last two seasons in Arizona.
Source(s): CBS Sports
Two quarterbacks have been signed by the Raiders over the past two days, but don't reach for your heart medicine quite yet. The two names just appeared on the Raiders.com transaction page today.
Signed today was Jeff Otis, who was a member of the Raiders during last year's off-season, from late March through late August. Otis at least outlasted fellow QB Josh Booty on last year's summer squad, but he's never thrown a pass in a regular season NFL game. Otis is short for a pro quarterback at 6-1 and 210 but has NFL Europe experience.
Inked yesterday was field general Erik Meyer from Eastern Washington. Meyer's also only 6-1 but weighs 5 pounds more than Otis. Signed as an undrafted free agent by Cincinnati in 2006, then released prior to the start of the regular season, Meyer spent 2007's training camp with the Seahawks, and also has NFL Europa experience with the Cologne Centurions.
Source(s): Raiders.com
Late update: Jason Jones of the SacBee has reported it twice now, once in his blog and then again in the newspaper proper—CB-S-returner Chris Carr, a restricted free agent, wants more playing time than he saw last year and is looking for another team to make him an offer the Raiders won't match. He's visited four teams now, Tennessee, Carolina, Cleveland, and most recently Buffalo.
We hope Oakland doesn't let him walk, less because of his return abilities—he's decent on kickoffs, but not very good returning punts—than because he provides good depth and is a good tackler despite not being a big guy (5-9, 183 lbs.). He played safety, not cornerback, at Boise State, and he does tackle willingly and better than Fabian Washington and, for that matter, generally better than safeties Stuart Schweigert and Hiram Eugene.
Source(s): Sacramento Bee, The Sports Xchange
It's Wonderlic leak time again . . . It seems to take a few weeks, but at some point after the Combine some media outlet prints out a bunch of both very low and very high scores on the NFL's equivalent of an IQ test. It's an outrageous invasion of privacy, of course, but it's also fascinating, and these guys do put themselves in the cross hairs, so to speak, by going to the Combine and aiming to turn pro. So, that said, we'll gladly repeat what we've found . . .
The Chicago Tribune ran this nugget:
Miami (FL) S Kenny Phillips reportedly scored just a 16 on the Wonderlic Exam.
Others with somewhat disappointing scores include Boise State OT Ryan Clady (13) and USC OLB Keith Rivers (16). Aside from Clady, all the top offensive linemen did well. Pitt's Jeff Otah got a 28, Vandy's Chris Williams a 32, USC's Sam Baker a 27, Jake Long a 26, and BC's Gosder Cherilus a 25.
Brian Brohm and Matt Ryan reportedly both scored 32s on the Wonderlic Test.
Teams generally look for quarterbacks to score above 20 on the exam, so these are stellar marks for the cerebral signal callers. Joe Flacco reportedly scored a 27, while Chad Henne got 22 of the 50 questions right.
(Upon investigation, the writing turns out to belong to Rotoworld, not the Tribune. Dan Pompei of that paper wrote the original article, "NFL teams weigh Wonderlic tests.")
Source(s): Rotoworld.com, Chicago Tribune
Free agent Quinn Gray says he'll sign with the Texans.
"My agent (Drew Rosenhaus) has an agreement in place," he said. "It's a 1-year deal." Gray would've had a much better chance at playing time in either Oakland or Green Bay. He plans on signing a deal for the minimum, so his addition tells us that he's been told Sage Rosenfels is on the trade block.
Source(s): Rotoworld.com, Houston Chronicle
One-time Whiners QB Trent Dilfer, released by San Francisco last week, told two overflow crowds at a Clovis, CA church today that the Raiders "are showing interest in signing" him. The Fresno Bee, covering Easter Sunday observances in California's Central (San Joaquin) Valley, reported that the pastor of the Northside Christian Church interviewed Dilfer as the two sat on stools during a pair of services before some 1600 worshippers altogether.
Dilfer is from the Fresno area and played collegiately at Fresno State—the alma mater also of Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin, not to mention OLB Sam Williams.
The fantasy sports site Rotoworld.com, which cited the Bee report on its NFL page, noted that Dilfer might have value for Oakland as an experienced mentor to the inexperienced JaMarcus Russell. We certainly hope any interest the Raiders may have in Dilfer is strictly limited to those aspects of his overall resume. Dilfer played notably poorly in relief of the injured Alex Smith last year in San Francisco, with a passer rating barely over 50, before a serious concussion knocked him out before the season's end. And he's suffered a series of serious concussions. As far as playing skills, we'd seriously prefer Andrew Walter with one hand tied behind his back.
But indications are that Dilfer—who's had to cope with a personal tragedy in his private life, losing a five-year-old son to a heart infection—does have a maturity level which could be a useful and steadying influence on Russell. Then again, one has to wonder, with a head coach who was himself a quarterback, and a quarterbacks coach (John DeFilippo) who seems to spend 95% of his time with Russell, why do we need a 35-year-old-or-so, beat-up, concussed guy on the roster just to be a mentor type?
Source(s): Rotoworld.com, Fresno Bee
(Written Thursday evening . . .) It's done. Whew, feels like when our child was finally delivered and the suspense was put to rest. CB DeAngelo Hall has been signed and duly photographed in the Hall of Fame Room at team HQ in Alameda, making it official.
Hall made a short statement saying just the right things—we suspect he had a good deal of coaching from his agent and/or the Raiders PR flacks. We notice that "Al," as he referred to the team's managing general partner when he arrived at the airport, had become "Mr. Davis." We expected that, actually. In recent memory, only John Madden (who's fairly close to Davis in age) and Lane Kiffin have failed to address the owner as "Mister Davis."
Nancy Gay of the Chronicle wrote that Davis personally did most of the negotiating, so he's due the credit then, for the best piece of news coming out of the maze of numbers surrounding the Hall contract. And that is that Atlanta's price for the trade was lowered from this year's second- and sixth-round picks for Oakland to this year's second- and next year's fifth-rounder. It leaves a little more in the cupboard for the 2008 draft.
Source(s): San Francisco Chronicle, NFL Network (NFL.com), "Raiders Blog" (Sacramento Bee), Raiders.com
(Actually written just after midnight on Wed., the 19th . . .) This final free agency tidbit from last week's visitors: DL Kevin Carter, whose versatility could have been valuable to the Raiders—he could play inside or outside—signed a one-year deal with Tampa Bay for less than Oakland's offer.
Late, late update: We're happy to say we think that Jason Jones is wrong. (See discussion below.) We believe the Raiders, after doing the Hall trade for second- and sixth-round picks, would have not three picks left, but four, as Jerry McDonald wrote: rounds 1, 4, and two picks in the seventh.
Our listing had been missing the second pick in round seven. We found it shown in a site's complete draft order, and so we have corrected our draft table.
Source(s): About.com
Late update: Now we've seen a Jason Jones blog post in which he claims the Raiders would have only three draft picks left after a Hall swap. (Cf. the item immediately below this one.) Jones omits the sixth-rounder McDonald includes. So we're off in search of a clear, complete list of the 2008 draft order as it now stands (minus compensatory picks, of course).
If this is of interest to you, keep an eye out on the What's New page for any updates to the Raiders' draft picks page. That's where the change would be posted.
In "Shortage of Picks," an otherwise excellent blog post today, Jerry McDonald engages in some educated guessing about what the Raiders' draft strategy might be if, as expected, the DeAngelo Hall trade comes to fruition and two 2008 picks are traded to Atlanta as compensation. McDonald opines that the Raiders will be left with only four selections: in the first round, the fourth, and two in the seventh.
That's not what we've seen or have in our draft chart. We show one sixth-rounder and one in the seventh. We'll try to run down this discrepancy.
McDonald also references the famous trade value chart, which, we finally learned this year, was authored by none other than Jimmy Johnson when he coached at Dallas. You can find a link to that here on the site (natch).
Source(s): "Inside The Oakland Raiders" blog (Bay Area News Group/InsideBayArea.com)
The Raiders players reported for the start of "voluntary" off-season conditioning drills Monday, a 14-week program with two mini-camps mixed in. (The Raiders got an extra mini-camp last year because they had a new coach, but barring an Al Davis beheading of Lane Kiffin, the team will only have the usual two this year.)
Offensive coordinator Greg Knapp phoned CC Times NFL columnist Cam Inman to assure him that not only is QB JaMarcus Russell not weighing 300 pounds these days, but he reported early—several weeks ago—to have "quality time" alone with Knapp and position coach John DeFilippo before the other players arrive.
Source(s): Contra Costa Times, Sacramento Bee
Late, late update: DeAngelo Hall's hometown paper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, says the proposed deal would involve the Raiders sending their second- and sixth-round picks, so Jason Jones' source may be correct. (See below.)
Late update: Hey, remember Shredderman? How could anyone forget him?!?!? Cannon arm, but an oh-so-delicate psyche that had to be massaged . . . Consistently overthrew his fly patterns by ten yards or more . . .
We're referring, of course, to Jay Schroeder, who came to the LA Raiders from Washington and played in Silver and Black from 1988 through 1992. He's profiled in a "Whatever Happened To ..." feature in the History section of Raiders.com. Here's the link:
Whatever
Happened to... Jay Schroeder
Raiders.com, Jan. 24, 2008
We wish the Raiders would make these sorts of features stand out more on the site.
We wrote in this space a few days back that we were happy to see that Barry Sims had landed on his feet with another team. Although we're sure we did read that somewhere, we can't find it anywhere authoritative now and according to NFL.com's listing—the most reliable—it appears that Sims is in fact unemployed at present. Our bad.
We will say this in advance of training camp and the 2008 season to those of you readers who've written over the years to bash Sims. He wasn't Jonathan Ogden, and we never said he was. But if you think the Raiders have had some crummy left tackles—and I include among that group Gerald Perry and Pat Harlow—just wait until you see Kwame "Yehudi Menuhin" Harris perform. (If you don't catch the Yehudi Menuhin reference, we recommend utilizing Google to dig up something along the lines of a Wikipedia article.) 
By now Raiders fans not in Timbuktu are no doubt familiar with the ESPN-NFL Network story about the Raiders negotiating with both the Falcons and DeAngelo Hall's management in order to bring the temperamental but talented cornerback to Alameda to play. But Jason Jones, the Raiders beat writer for the Sacramento Bee, is reporting something a little different in an article dated today.
According to Jones' source, the trade wouldn't be for only the Raiders' second-round draft pick, as was reported last night, but for Oakland's second- and sixth-round picks. It would really pretty well clean out this year's draft for the Silver and Black. Not only did they trade away the third-rounder last year to move up to take T Mario Henderson, but the bill has now come due for DT Gerard Warren in the form of this year's fifth-round pick.
Take a look at the Raiders' 2008 draft in table form and you'll see what we mean. This could be an incredibly expensive deal—not only in terms of depleting the draft, but also because of the ripple effect on our secondary. We already lost Chris Clemons because of the Tommy Kelly contract. What's Nnamdi Asomugha going to want long-term if Hall gets money like Asante Samuel got?
Not to mention the personality issues. In Javon Walker the Raiders already got a guy who demanded his way out of two successful franchises. He's all smiles in the photo there with his contract, but he wasn't generally smiling in Green Bay or Denver. Now they're going to bring an accomplished badmouth to add to the locker room? We really have some doubts about this one . . .
Source(s): Sacramento Bee
Speaking of WR Javon Walker, we started to write rather expansively when the news of his agreement on terms hit the Net about what a huge risk he was/is, but then we thought better of it and bit our collective tongue. Pro Football Weekly touches on some of the same questions, albeit briefly, in a "The Way We Hear It..." column which we missed last week. It's dated March 7 and we've added it to the Articles Archive, but you can go directly to it here. It's short and worth reading.
One is a text article discussing both Bay Area NFL teams by long-time NFL writer and Hall of Fame Selector Ira Miller. You can find it in the Articles section; it's dated March 13. If it's any consolation, he's at least as hard on the Whiners as he is on the Raiders, if not harder.
The other item is a video which appeared today called "State of the Franchise." We've linked this one in the Articles section, as well as in the draft links section because it includes a segment in which Charles Davis forecasts the Raiders draft pick at No. 4.
The Raiders signed a big body today, a former first-round draft pick of the Giants who spent virtually all of last year on injured reserve after playing in the season opener. He's DT William Joseph, listed at 6-5, 308 pounds, in the league five years (time on IR counts toward a player becoming an unrestricted free agent). He has also logged some time at defensive end.
InsideBayArea.com posted a Jerry McDonald blog post early this evening in which he appraises the Raiders' moves thus far in (and in the days leading up to) free agency. As is generally the case with McDonald's posts, he offers a number of salient observations on the various players the Raiders have signed. His capsule on the Joseph signing is perfect, and we quote it here in its entirety:
"Signing FA DT William Joseph: A classic Raiders roll of the dice who missed all of last season with a back injury with the New York Giants. Joseph, who signed Friday, is a former first-round draft pick, No. 25 overall, in 2003. Played in 55 games with 28 starts for the Giants from 2004 through 2006 with seven sacks.
"What could go wrong: Not much. If he doesn't make it out of training camp, nothing is lost."
Source(s): "Inside The Oakland Raiders" blog (Bay Area News Group/InsideBayArea.com), "Raiders Blog and Q&A" (Sacramento Bee)
Here's the skinny on new Raider WR Drew Carter, with whom the Raiders came to terms today (and announced it on Raiders.com):
He stands 6-foot-3, weighs 200, and played collegiately at Ohio State. He was a fifth-round draft pick by Carolina in 2004 but tore his right ACL his rookie season and spent the year on IR. He played sparingly in his first "real" season—2005—then had 28 catches for 357 yards in 2006. Last season, he totaled 38 catches for 517 yards and four touchdowns as a part-time starter.
Nominally he'll compete for a starting role with Javon Walker and Ronald Curry, although in point of fact, if Walker and Curry stay healthy, Carter figures to be the No. 3. But it's an understatement to observe that all three of these receivers have had their share of leg problems during their careers, so nothing should be taken for granted . . .
In addition to Drew Carter, Jerry McDonald cited a report in the St. Petersburg [FL] Times that Tampa Bay's 34-year-old DE Kevin Carter, a 13-year veteran, was due to visit Alameda today. (There's no relation between the two players, so far as we know.) And a later SF Chron item reported that Kevin Carter was indeed at Raiders HQ this afternoon and apparently talking contract with the team. Carter has talked with the Raiders in other free-agent years.
Source(s): San Francisco Chronicle, "Inside The Oakland Raiders" blog (Bay Area News Group/InsideBayArea.com)
QB Quinn Gray, whom Raiders fans saw in action against us in the disheartening end-of-season thumping at Jacksonville last December, visited Alameda Tuesday as scheduled. The Raiders, obviously determined to keep Andrew Walter under contract but without any chance to earn playing time, are seeking a backup for JaMarcus Russell. Gray is 6-3, 246, a four-year-vet who went undrafted out of Florida State.
Jerry McDonald wrote that Gray has also visited Green Bay and would seem to have a better opportunity there in terms of getting playing time, since the Raiders can be expected to leave JaMarcus Russell in games longer to "play through," and learn from, his mistakes.
Source(s): San Francisco Chronicle, "Inside The Oakland Raiders" blog (Bay Area News Group/InsideBayArea.com)
We read in the latest Sports Xchange reports on the Raiders that T Barry Sims landed with Carolina. We're happy to hear that. Sims was well paid during his last four or five seasons with the Raiders, so he shouldn't have to worry about the basics; but he earned that relatively big contract with good, generally consistent play over a string of years. We'd suspect that in this millenium, only Sims, Wiz, Lincoln Kennedy, and (for a couple of years) Barret Robbins earned really good salaries playing on Oakland's offensive line, so we don't begrudge the man what he made.
Source(s): The Sports Xchange (CBS Sports)
Here's a YouTube video showing some Gibril Wilson action, although our (old) eyes had difficulty picking him out on most of the sequences; they're simply shot from too far away. This one was provided by beat writer Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee:
==> Gibril Wilson highlights 
(YouTube clip; uses player embedded at the YouTube site)
It's been fashionable among many Raiders fans the past few seasons to dump on offensive lineman Barry Sims. Granted, his penchant for jumping early—which he himself admitted—was annoying, and like most weak side tackles, he sometimes had problems with speed rushers. But he was never one to make excuses and always gave his best effort, which is all that can be expected from anyone. He held on to the starting left tackle job as the team drafted one high pick after another with the clear intent of replacing him; he simply outplayed all of them (most recently Paul McQuistan as a rookie).
Released Friday at age 33, Sims issued a really classy statement, according to SacBee Raiders beat writer Jason Jones:Sims, in a statement through his representatives, said he "leaves the Raiders with sincere thanks to Al Davis and fondness for all of the players and coaches with whom he had the privilege of working."
You can read the entire statement from Sims, which Raiders.com posted for all to see, in our humble Quotes of Note space on the News page.
Later addendum: DE Chris Clemons did indeed sign with Philly yesterday. (See next item.) That'll teach us to write news items when we first come upon something, without looking to see if it's been updated. Anyway—the cost of skewing the Raiders' pay scale out of kilter with Kelly's contract was the loss of Clemons. 
Source(s): Associated Press
Per Raiders beat writer Steve Corkran, T Kwame Harris visited the Raiders on Friday, and former Denver DE Ebenezer Ekuban is also scheduled to visit soon.
DE Chris Clemons, who tied Derrick Burgess for the team lead with eight sacks last season, was scheduled to meet with the Philadelphia Eagles yesterday. His agent—not surprisingly—broke off talks with the Raiders after the news of Tommy Kelly's mega-bucks contract ($18.25 M guaranteed) became known. According to Corkran, the Raiders were only offering Clemons a signing bonus around $1 million.
Source(s): Bay Area News Group
No one in the Raiders organization thought that QB Josh McCown or WR Jerry Porter were likely to leave in free agency, we suspect. The attitude toward Porter was that he was welcome to test the market and would probably have a rude awakening as to what he was worth.
Porter signed a six-year deal with Jacksonville today for $30 million, with $10 million guaranteed! It's hard to believe . . . Clearly Porter's not worth that much—the man has never had a 1000-yard receiving season—yet with a 2008 salary cap of $116 million, teams have money to burn. And Jacksonville came close to winning its division last year.
As for Josh McCown, well, those of us who've seen a lot of him know he's truly a borderline NFL starter at best, but Miami is desperate. Hey, we've always thought Andrew Walter got a raw deal, being asked to produce behind the worst offensive line in the league in 2006. And if he's not perfect for Lane Kiffin's college offense, which features sprint-outs and bootlegs and other plays likely to shorten a quarterback's career, well, who's to say Walter won't outlast Kiffin as a Raider? Kiffin promised us an "explosive" offense when he was hired. We're still waiting to see some signs of it . . .
T Barry Sims was released today, according to Jerry McDonald, who cites as his source fellow Bay Area News Group writer Steve Corkran. We're sad to see him go. He wasn't great, but most of the years he played for Oakland he was the best of the O-linemen. If any of you readers think that Kwame Harris, the violin-playing stiff who washed out as a Whiner, and who's currently visiting Alameda, could conceivably be an adequate starter in Sims' place, we think you've had too much sun . . . . Or maybe Jake Long's still going to be available when the Raiders pick at No. 4. Ri-i-i-i-ght . . . .
On the other hand, we're excited about the other player visiting the Raiders right now, safety Gibril Wilson from the Giants. Big hitter, gets some picks, might allow Michael Huff to shift to free safety. We've read in two or three places that Wilson really wants to return to the Bay Area. How long has it been since the Raiders had a safety who could really make receivers pay for catching the ball?
We hope it's not the case that by overpaying for Tommy Kelly, the Raiders lost their chance to keep Clemons on the roster. Unfortunately Jerry McDonald suggested in his blog late last evening that such a scenario probably was the case.
Finally, Nancy Gay wrote in the Chronicle that defensive lineman Tyler Brayton, after failing to reach an agreement with the Raiders, will visit Carolina.
Source(s): "Inside The Oakland Raiders" blog (Bay Area News Group/InsideBayArea.com), NFL.com, San Francisco Chronicle
FB Lorenzo Neal, as good a battering ram as there is in football, was released from the Chumpsters today with three years remaining on his contract. Get on that horn, Al, and sign him up!!
Not only is Neal a superb lead blocker—he's led the way for LT to set all those records—but he has good hands and he's utterly selfless, a real good-character guy to have in a locker room.
It says here, develop sophomore FB Oren O'Neal for the future if you will, but for the next two to four years make Neal the Raiders' starting fullback. Remember that as well as O'Neal blocks, to date the youngster has shown stone hands, so he's somewhat one-dimensional. And as for Justin Griffith, if he's so good, why did coach Lane Kiffin increasingly replace him with O'Neal as last season went on?
Source(s): Associated Press
Jerry McDonald questions the huge contract that the Raiders gave defensive lineman Tommy Kelly today, but we're happy to see Kelly re-signed, and we also think his best playing years are ahead of him. Hopefully the Raiders will leave him at one spot—most likely defensive tackle—so that he can develop consistency. And he may prove a good complement to DT Gerard Warren, who's more of a penetrator. At the least the pair will provide some beef in the middle.
We read that Denver, among other clubs, was poised to make a run at signing Kelly in free agency, so the Raiders' sense of urgency wasn't misplaced.
We've read also that the Raiders are negotiating with DE Chris Clemons, who would be an unrestricted free agent at 9:01 p.m. tonight. While undersized, he proved valuable in 2007, and we hope Oakland gets him signed as well.
Excerpt from a Jason Jones blog post in the SacBee back about Feb. 23:
"*NFL owners will almost certainly void the final two years of the CBA. That means 2009 would be the last year with a salary cap before an uncapped 2010 season.
"Expect a labor standoff before the 2010 season if a new deal isn't reached. The players won't play with a cap again if they go into 2010 without one."
On Feb. 21 the AP reported that the players union had filed a grievance against the owners for reducing the debt ceiling for each NFL club by 20%. Union honcho Gene Upshaw said in a statement announcing the grievance that the reduction is "part of a broader scheme in which the owners are colluding to reduce spending on player salaries . . . . It's no coincidence that this measure has a deadline which comes just before the 2010 league year, when there would be no cap."
Under the modifications to the CBA that were approved in 2006, the owners' first opportunity to void the deal will come this coming November, and sentiment among the owners is apparently strong that they gave up too much to the players in 2006. Whether the league can survive without a salary cap—which after all, protects the owners from themselves more than anything else—is an open question.
Source(s): Sacramento Bee, Associated Press
We've noticed several Raiders beat writers using the ballpark figure $9.8 million as the likely tender that the Raiders will have to make to CB Nnamdi Asomugha now that's he's been designated an exclusive franchise player. Previously the figure being used—and a specific one, because it is calculated based on 2007 salaries—was $9.465 M. If you're confused by this, or just somewhat new to the thing about franchise and transition tags, we have an explanation on the site. It's fairly complicated, but we've tried to make the discussion as clear as we can without sacrificing completeness.
The difference in money, however, for Asomugha boils down to the two flavors of franchise players, exclusive and non-exclusive. Simply put, the Raiders elected to use the more expensive tag, the exclusive designation.
The usual franchise player gets a non-exclusive tag, meaning that he (or, in reality, his agent[s]) can negotiate with other teams. It's just that, should he actually sign with a new club, big compensation is required.
The Raiders have cap commitments of $95,700,000 at the present time, leaving them $20.3 million in cap room with free agency little more than a week away, according to figures posted by the Rumor Mill's editor Mike Florio last evening. The 2008 cap is $116.729 million per club.
Differing perspectives: CC Times columnist Eric Gilmore has penned an article that appears today, "Putting the 'diss' in dysfunction," that expresses the view that the Raiders and Whiners will have a difficult time attracting free agents because of their "binge losing," among other things. That is probably the majority viewpoint on the subject, but we direct readers' attention to a Jerry McDonald blog post on Feb. 1 in which he argued that the Raiders' 4-12 record and chaotic front office won't be any obstacle, that it's the "Benjamins"—money—that talk.
There may well be merit in both arguments, depending on the individual players involved. Some will focus almost entirely on the money; others at their prospects of getting lots of playing time, or what scheme the team runs on offense or defense; others yet will look for a stable organization, or perhaps even such factors as living conditions in the area, the weather, etc. But it is interesting to see two intelligent sportswriters coming to diametrically opposite conclusions about Oakland's prospects for landing serious talent in the upcoming free agency market. Because it's beyond dispute that the Raiders' current front office situation is a mess.
Source(s): Contra Costa Times, "Inside The Oakland Raiders" blog (Bay Area News Group/InsideBayArea.com)
While our computer was down reader Gerry Harris sent us the link to a Washington Post article on former Raider and Buc NT Dave Pear titled "The Pain Game." Pear, whose body is a mess from his NFL career, was in the news a few months back during one of the periods when the issue of help for older retired players surfaced in the public eye, as it does now at regular intervals.
The article ran on Feb. 3 and we've linked it in the Articles section, but because it will soon move to the Articles archive, we include a direct link here:
The Pain Game
Washington Post, Feb. 3, 2008
We've said it often on this site, and we'll repeat it again. In our humble view it's disgraceful that both the Players Association and the owners do so little to help retired players with their medical bills. Football is an unabashedly violent sport that has proven to be extraordinarily lucrative, but the wreckage in shattered bodies left behind is not something that should be swept under the rug or ignored.
A further Raiders angle: Accompanying the feature is the transcript of an online Q&A with writer Michael Leahy dated the day after the article ran. One of his questions came from Brent Boyd, a former NFL lineman who testified before Congress last June and again in September. In his question/comment, Boyd notes in reference to the so-called "88 Plan" that Wayne Hawkins and his wife, who live in Reno, have received only $125 under that plan. Hawkins was an original Oakland Raider. (To see this comment click on the "Transcript: Q&A With Reporter Michael Leahy" link in the small sidebar, then search for "Hawkins.")
Late update: Where Are They Now Dept.: Aaron Kromer, who coached the Raiders offensive line for a period under (we think) Bill Callahan—has been signed by New Orleans as <gulp!> a running backs coach! Prior to this job Kromer was an OL assistant for Jon Gruden in Tampa Bay.
Chuck Pagano, who coached defensive backs under Norv Turner, has been hired as a defensive assistant by new Baltimore coach John Harbaugh. He spent the Art Shell year serving as defensive coordinator at North Carolina.
And on the free agent front, Miami executed its first player purge of the Bill Parcells-Jeff Ireland regime yesterday, and among its victims were starters tackle L.J. Shelton and huge DT Keith Traylor. The Raiders need to upgrade their tackle positions, and could Traylor be effective against the run in the way that DT Terdell Sands wasn't? Worth considering . . .
Source(s): Associated Press, RealFootball365.com
We read somewhere very recently that the Raiders and CB Nnamdi Asomugha's agent are talking, and we certainly expect they would be. The period during which teams can apply a transition or franchise tag runs from Feb. 7 through 21 (at 1:00 p.m. PST) this year. Asomugha would probably be the single most prized free agent in the league this year, and there's virtually no chance that Oakland will allow him to escape to free agency at month's end.
The cost of the franchise tag for Asomugha would be $9.465 million. The huge contract given to Nate Clements by the Whiners last year helped fatten the "top five" pot considerably for cornerbacks.
Asomugha's co-first round draft pick from 2003, DL Tyler Brayton, had a similar contract clause allowing him to opt out of the final year of his six-year deal, and he exercised that option several days ago. So he is officially a soon-to-be unrestricted free agent.
Finally on the Raiders free agent front, the Sports Xchange reported several days ago that the Raiders re-signed OLB Sam Williams to a one-year contract for $700,000. Williams, also drafted in 2003 along with Asomugha and Brayton, would have been an unrestricted free agent.
Source(s): ESPN.com, ProFootballTalk.com ("Rumor Mill"), RealFootball365.com, the Sports Xchange
Late update: The following nugget appeared on the KFFL.com site on Jan. 28, while our computer was offline. This is the first time we've seen this report, which quotes Sac'to Bee Raiders beat writer Jason Jones. If the content is correct, it could go a long way toward explaining why Lane Kiffin might not be the most popular guy around team headquarters these days (the word arrogant does come to mind).
"Jason Jones, of the Sacramento Bee, reports Oakland Raiders players have begun calling managing general partner Al Davis to express their displeasure with head coach Lane Kiffin. Kiffin's insistence on wanting to fire defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, defensive line coach Keith Millard, linebackers coach Don Martindale and defensive backs coach Darren Perry is considered a reason for the players' displeasure." (Emphasis added.)
We're pleased to see that the Raiders made not one, but two coaching changes which were called for. Not only was Charles Coe, whose wide receivers underproduced in 2007, replaced by James Lofton, but strength and conditioning coach Jeff Fish was finally shown the door too, replaced by Brad Roll. (Roll was mistakenly called Brian Roll by InsideBayArea.com, but we're assuming that Raiders.com got the new man's name right.) We grew tired of seeing the Raiders routinely manhandled late in games as they inevitably seemed to run out of gas. The trend actually began with Fish's predecessor, Garrett Giemont, and had continued for quite a number of seasons now.
Source(s): Bay Area News Group, Raiders.com
The Chron blog, such as it is, reports that special teams assistant Curtis Fuller won't be back. What a classic example of placing blame where it's due . . . NOT. Kiffin should be happy that Brian Schneider, his hire as special teams coordinator—Fuller's boss—wasn't canned as he ought to have been. The 2007 special teams, with the exception of Shane Lechler's punting, were absolutely atrocious.
Source(s): "Silver&Black" blog (San Francisco Chronicle)
Reading Carl Steward's impassioned defense of the suddenly seemingly embattled Lane Kiffin, it seems that the report of managing general partner Al Davis having given Kiffin a draft resignation letter to sign emanated from multiple sources, not just ESPN. ESPN is relatively easy to dismiss as a rumor mill; they do—especially Len Pasquarelli—play somewhat loose with facts at times and occasionally miss entirely on "scoops" that they purport to dig up themselves.
Adam Schefter of the NFL Network is a different sort, however. Notwithstanding that he comes from a long background working in Donkeytown, his stories are—to our ear—truth-based, not exaggerated, and usually prove to be right even in their details. He was right in most everything he reported about ex-coach Art Shell, for instance, from the news that Shell would be hired to the news that he was about to be fired, and when it was likely to occur.
Both organizations, the NFL Network (through Schefter) and ESPN (via Chris Mortensen), cite as their ultimate source persons close to Kiffin. So what we have is quite possibly true, since it is Kiffin's side of things, has a clear "Poor me!" element to it, and hit the fan only after Mike Florio's sh*t-stirring got reporters so buzzed up that Kiffin had to address the Ryan situation whether he cared to or not.
We had been planning an opinion piece—at least one, possibly more—critiquing Kiffin's first year, and we're annoyed that we haven't had time to write it before he started whining in public. We do still plan to set out at much more length our thinking about Mr. Clean. But suffice it to say, for now, that he's lucky he got as much leeway as he did; Jon Gruden, who at least came in with prior O/C experience at the pro level, didn't get nearly the liberty with hiring assistants that Kiffin did. And if he now is shocked that Al Davis is Al Davis, and still demands ultimate control over everything, well, we can only say that Kiffin has been blind, or a fool, or both. Davis has always been a micro-manager in the final analysis, and that's not going to change after some kid posts a 4-12 record and tries to suggest to the owner that the Raiders need to go to a Cover 2 defense.
Quit dreaming, Kiff! Either take your money, shut your mouth, and coach the defensive scheme upon which Davis has always insisted, or leave.
And, by the way, readers, that defensive scheme has been plenty good in the past . . . like any scheme, though, it's dependent on personnel. Acquire a second shutdown corner, a wood-laying strong safety, and a two-gap defensive tackle, and it could be a top-tier defense. But our views about Ryan and the defense will have to wait for another day . . .
Source(s): Bay Area News Group (San Jose Mercury News)
When we linked an article just a couple of days back about James Lofton getting canned as San Diego's receivers coach, it wasn't strictly because he once played for the (Los Angeles) Raiders. Regular readers will know that we largely ignore general NFL news unless it either mentions the Raiders specifically or has league-wide impact.
But we singled out the news item about Lofton because if there are any position coaches who could be said to have underachieved for Lane Kiffin in 2007, wide receivers coach Charles Coe would certainly be one of them. Player development is a mark of good coaching, and that aspect of Kiffin's first year draws very low marks in our estimation. On the wideout front, Ronald Curry had a genuinely mediocre year, dropping far too many balls. Nor did any of Oakland's receivers run noticeably sharp or crisp patterns.
Which brings us to Mr. Lofton. He might well be a natural as Oakland new receivers coach. He's due in Monday, according to beat writer Steve Corkran.
Source(s): Bay Area News Group (San Jose Mercury News), "Inside The Oakland Raiders" blog (Bay Area News Group)
Vaughn McClure, of the Chicago Tribune, reports the Raiders would be interested in signing Chicago Bears WR Bernard Berrian in free agency if the Bears do not re-sign him or put their franchise tag on him.
Source(s): KFFL.com
We had a chuckle over a guest column we came across that appeared last week on the Contra Costa Times site. In it a writer from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel got former Raiders CB Charles Woodson to admit that initially, when the Postons were job-hunting for him, he was anything but eager about playing in Green Bay.
Since they first signed Reggie White, who came to be called the Minister of Defense, the Packers have been trying to overcome the reverse stereotype among black NFL players that Green Bay is not a place to play. With the one obvious exception of Brett Favre, most if not nearly all of the team's skill players, not to mention high profile players, have been African-American for two decades now. But Charles, being Charles, was still skeptical.
Woodson, alas, is but another example of a substantial category of NFL players: those who were mediocre in silver and black—or whose play became so in relation to their natural, God-given abilities—but whose careers thrived, took off, however you phrase it . . . entered a distinctly better phase after they left the Raiders. There have been a few examples to the contrary—Ken Stabler, sadly, had lost most of his magic in his post-Oakland travels—but the great preponderance of players follow the Charles Woodson/Randy Moss pattern. Which leads us to believe that his highness the Grand Poobah, Al ("It's 'Mister Davis' to you, bub!") Davis, is just flat-out wrong about one of his oft-stated beliefs, namely, that locker room chemistry isn't important to winning. But that's a point we've made before, and slightly off the track from being bemused at Woodson's naiveté.
So, getting back to our original subject, the article about Woodson and Green Bay, here's a direct link to it:
Woodson's
surprise revival in Green Bay / The Packers were a last resort for the former Raiders cornerback
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jan. 18, 2008 (Contra Costa Times)
Source(s): Contra Costa Times
Editor Mike Florio has been stirring it up again on his "Rumor Mill" web page at www.ProFootballTalk.com. It's Kiffin vis a vis Ryan, says Florio, with Florio writing publicly that the two aren't speaking to each other and various versions making the rounds among the many participants and onlookers at this week's Senior Bowl.
Here's how Florio is hypothesizing it:
"Per a league source, the rumor is that head coach Lane Kiffin and defensive coordinator Rob Ryan aren't on speaking terms, and that owner Al Davis prefers Ryan because he has won over the players.
"Several weeks ago, there were reports that the Raiders were preparing to fire Ryan. It also was reported that Ryan would be landing with the Jets. The team issued a strong denial, and all has been quiet since then.
"It could be that Kiffin is in trouble, and that Davis is waiting for the dust to settle as to other head-coaching jobs or offensive coordinator positions at the NFL and NCAA level before cutting Kiffin loose."
Florio goes on to state flatly that Kiffin is signed for two more years, although Jerry McDonald and others have questioned whether that is actually the case. McDonald has previously pointed out that managing general partner Davis's preferred habit in past cases has often been to sign a new coach for only one or two years at the outset and retain options for the team to re-hire the coach for an additional year or two.
Read Florio's account for yourself and see what you think.
Source(s): ProFootballTalk.com ("Rumor Mill")
During his press conference at the Senior Bowl, Lane Kiffin said he really liked what he saw from University of Michigan QB Chad Henne and thought Henne has a bright future in the NFL.
Source(s): KFFL.com
Late update: We neglected to flag it here in the News section promptly, but last week the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced the Finalists for this year's class, and we were thrilled to see that punter nonpareil Ray Guy is among them. The Selectors will go into their proverbial smoke-filled room to vote on the finalists the day before the Super Bowl, Feb. 2. Seventeen finalists will be considered; a minimum of four candidates and maximum of seven can be chosen.
The decision to narrow the field down to the seventeen finalists was done by mail-in ballots.
We have to think that this is, realistically, Guy's last decent shot at getting elected. Players can only remain actively eligible for a limited number of years before they are bumped out if not elected; after that, their only hope is election as a Senior, a la ex-Cowboy Rayfield Wright several years back. Guy has been a finalist for seven years now but hasn't come really close—by which we mean the final one or two votes on that final voting day. Selectors start their session by "weeding out" (eliminating) candidates like Guy who don't have the votes, to then proceed to debate amongst themselves over the candidates who presumably do have the votes.
As we all know, Guy is bucking the prejudice of many writers that kickers "don't do anything." Had they seen Guy in action, the selectors might know better; Guy won games for the Raiders single-handed at times. In tight, field-possession struggles, such as Oakland and Pittsburgh tended to wage in their epic playoff showdowns, Guy alone could take over a game and make the difference.
Source(s): Associated Press, Contra Costa Times wire services, Raiders.com
<Soapbox alert:> We were disgusted to read snide and disparaging comments in a Yahoo! Sports "Experts blog" about Herschel Walker, who, it was reported last Friday, suffers from multiple personality disorder. The blogger makes an attempted joke about the infamous 1989 Dallas-Minnesota trade in which Walker was swapped for 5 players and 8 draft picks, snickering that the transaction reflected "all 17 Herschel Walkers." Really, really bad taste, bub.
We know a fair bit about MPD, as it used to be called. (Nowadays the newer name for it is dissociative identity disorder, frequently abbreviated DID.) It's fairly rare but certainly not that rare. We've had intimate friends who turned out to be dissociative, in fact. It does not resemble the Jekyll-and-Hyde stereotype immortalized by Robert Louis Stevenson. Typically you won't know it about a person unless he or she chooses to tell you, and it's a highly personal, intimate, and usually closely kept detail. This is particularly so because in the vast majority of instances the person has suffered serious abuse during childhood.
Like most mental health disorders, the degree to which DID may impede healthy functioning in a person will vary from one person to the next. Some folks live relatively normal lives with DID; others are seriously or even severely impaired. But the one thing that's true in every case is that it's not a joke at all.
Read about it on Wikipedia if you want to learn more.
<Off the soapbox.>Source(s): Associated Press, Yahoo! Sports, Wikipedia
Last winter, when newly hired head coach Lane Kiffin was recruiting his coaching staff, we ran an opinion piece here on the site urging the Raiders to consider Steve Loney as their offensive line coach. As Raiders fans all know, Kiffin ultimately brought in Tom Cable instead.
We see in today's news that Rams coach Scott Linehan, who is making numerous changes in his staff, hired Loney this past week to coach his offensive line.
We'll be interested to see what kind of season St. Louis RB Stephen Jackson has in 2008, assuming, of course, that he stays healthy.
Source(s): Associated Press, ESPN.com
Where Are They Now Dept.: Bill Callahan was hired by the Jets' Eric Mangini to serve as assistant head coach and OL coach—his background and the one area in which his competence isn't questioned after the debacles as a head coach.
Source(s): Pro Football Weekly, ProFootballTalk.com ("Rumor Mill")
There was an interesting article in yesterday's New York Times on baseball's efforts to close a loophole players were thought to be using to get legal prescriptions for stimulants which would otherwise come under the ban on amphetamines. The drill involved getting "certified" for an exemption due to having attention deficit disorder (ADD), for which a frequent course of treatment is ritalin or adderall—amphetamines. The number of players requesting such exemptions had skyrocketed in the last year.
One wonders what relevance this may have to the NFL. You'd think amphetamines could give athletes a bigger edge in a game of brute force (football) than a so-called "game of inches" (baseball) where fine motor skills are more important than pure strength or stamina per se.
We intended to return to this section yesterday and add this further item, but forgot . . . Also back in the Raiders fold, in addition to Joe Echemandu, is WR Will Buchanon. After he was cut by the Raiders last year in mid-August he spent a week or so with the Giants, who released him, then was released from Kansas City's practice squad on September 25.
Buchanon had a great camp in 2006, then got next to no playing time that season under Art Shell. We like him. We think he's certainly got more potential than Chris McFoy, who seems to be a Kiffin favorite.
Source(s): Pro Football Weekly
Good news! Jerry McDonald referred in a blog post on Jan. 17 to RB Adimchinobe (Joe) Echemandu signing a contract with the Raiders again. That is confirmed by Pro Football Weekly, which is always our preferred source for player transactions. PFW shows Echemandu as having been signed by Oakland on Jan. 16.
Echemandu was easily Oakland's best runner last year in training camp but started the season buried on the depth chart behind RBs LaMont Jordan and Justin Fargas. He was released by the team on Oct. 8 when Dominic Rhodes finished serving his four-game suspension. He signed with Houston, but the Texans cut him on Christmas Day.
We're excited that he's back! In our view coach Lane Kiffin would be a fool to let him slip away again.
Source(s): "Inside The Oakland Raiders" blog (Bay Area News Group), Pro Football Weekly, our own database
Where Are They Now Dept.: There's an InsideBayArea.com article today on ex-Raiders prospect DE Dave Tollefson, who has shined in a backup role with the New York Giants since they signed him off Oakland's practice squad on Oct. 2. It's a shame the Raiders couldn't have found a way to test Tollefson's mettle sooner on the active roster, since he had stood out in a previous training camp with Green Bay.
The NFL.com web site, as guilty as any of over-hyping the Super Bowl, has links there today to highlights from four past games. One of those is Super Bowl XVIII, RB Marcus Allen's huge day which set what were then several records including 191 yards rushing. There's a recap of the game as well as a Flash video clip in which one can hear a hoarse Bill King yell his signature "Holy Toledo!" It's not to be missed!
Also available are highlights from SB 37, when Tampa Bay ran over the Raiders, picking Rich Gannon five times (he finished with a dismal passer rating of 48.9). Raiders fans may be less enthusiastic about this latter link.
The links appear in a section sponsored by Cadillac, which apparently sponsors the MVP award for the games. You'll find the section (of four lines of links) on the left margin of the screen, immediately below the wide collage at screen top.
Referencing our open question put to readers about the 20 "unrestricted free agents" supposedly on the Raiders according to Chronicle beat writer David White, we've found our answer by way of the latest Sports Xchange "Raiders report: Strategy and personnel" report.
The Raiders have twenty, all right, if you include unrestricted and restricted free agents. We were missing five RFAs and one UFA (S Jarrod Cooper), who, when added in, bring the combined total to 20.
The up-to-date data is available on our Raiders free agents page.
Source(s): The Sports Xchange
Where Are They Now Dept., Coaches Edition: Jim Colletto, less than successful as the Raiders' OL coach under Norv Turner, was promoted by Detroit from merely coaching their offensive line to also serving as offensive coordinator.
But, there is karma in this world. For every Colletto, there's a Bresnahan. As in Chuck Bresnahan, ex-defensive coordinator of the Raiders, who was fired from the same post by the Bungles.
Source(s): Associated Press
Where Are They Now Dept.: Two promising young players who spent training camp with the Raiders ended up on Tennessee's practice squad during this past December: CB Marquice Cole of Northwestern and LB Kurt Campbell from SUNY-Albany.
Source(s): Pro Football Weekly
There are several big pieces of Raiders news, but in each instance, you'll know as much as we do by reading the linked items in the Articles section. We refer to defensive coordinator's Rob Ryan's dismissal—apparently already a done deal—and the retirement of DT Warren Sapp.
Our reason for breaking out a new entry here, though, is to point out an apparent inaccuracy in a statement by Chronicle beat writer David White, who wrote on Jan. 1 that the Raiders will have 20 unrestricted free agents.
We don't think the number is nearly so high. The few resources we've been able to find this early in the year uniformly show the Raiders with 12 unrestricted's ("UFAs") and two restricted's ("RFAs"). Readers, unite! If you know of more free agents than we show, or know of a Web resource to which you can point us showing more than 12 for Oakland, please, send us an e-mail! There's a link at the bottom of this page.
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