Thread: Oakland Raiders breakdown

I have really been hearing too much about the oakland raiders this offseason and how great they are gonna be, because they added moss and lamont jordan, so I decided to do a little bit of a comparison to the vikings teams of past couple years.

Daunte vs Collins- Well I don't think this one can even be argued by anyone. Collins hasn't thrown for more then 22 TD's(albeit with less talent at WR then he has now) in a season and had 20 int's last season. He is also behind a much less talented group of O-lineman that don't give him a lot of time to make his descision. Collins tends to panic when he gets a little pressured and make horrible descisions. Daunte on the other hand, has the ability to get out of the pocket when he feels the pressure and has done a great job of finding an open receiver, tucking and running it, or throwing the ball away avoiding the int. I think Daunte has a huge advantage over collins.

Okland rushing attack vs our's- Well, we have 2 groups of basically unproven guys. Lamont jordan has some talent, but had his success behind a very good jets O-line that is much better then oakland's. He has also yet to show he can be the guy for 16 games. Behind him, oakland has a bunch of nothings. These nothings were part of the reason oakland was dead last in rushing last season. In minnesota, we at least have a RB that has had a pro bowl season and shown he can do it for a whole season. We also have some RB's behind him that have shown they can step in, if bennett goes down, and our offense and running game won't skip a beat. Minnesota was 18th in rushing last season, compared to oakland's 32nd, however we also 2nd in the league in average yards per carry(with our RB's having the highest average YPC in the NFL) and oakland was only 21st in YPC. Adding moss to take some of the 8 in the box's away and getting a good young back will boost oakland rushing game, no doubt about that. But in comparing that to our's of the past couple seasons, even with a new starting RB pretty much every week for us, and I think we still get the advantage in the rushing game, especially with our O-line and jimmy K being much better then their O-line and run blocking TE.

WRs-Well moss vs moss is a wash. Then you have porter and curry vs robinson and burleson. I would say it is close here, but would give a slight edge to oakland at the #2 and #3 WR spots. #4 and #5 WR's are even. So here is where I would give a slight edge to oakland.

Defense- Our's has been bad the past couple years, however I really see oakland as having the worst D's in the NFL this season, and if not, very very close to the worst. They traded away 2 of the bright young guns on their D, in buchanon and napolean and didn't do much to replace them. Buchanon will be replaced by fabian washington, who IMO, is a poor man's batman carroll. So at best oakland could get a push comparing their D of this season to our's of the past couple seasons. I would say realistically though, we would have a slight edge in the D department.

Division- This is overlooked by many people, when they say oakland will be so great this season. We had chicago and detroit, who have been 2 of the bottom teams in the league the past couple years, and a GB team that has been declining. Compare that to a SD team that won 12 games last season, a KC team that significantly upgraded the weak D that has been holding them back, and denver who always has a great run offense and good D, which always spells wins in the NFL. I really see a big disadvantage for oakland playing in a very tough division this season, comparing to what we have faced in ours the past few seasons.

So these are a few things that come to my mind, when people talk up the oakland raiders and think they are gonna be so great this year. I see a team similar to vikings teams of the past, with a very good offense and one of the worst D's in the league. I however, don't see them having as good of an offense as we have had and having a slightly worse D then we have had in the past. Add that with playing in a much much tougher division then we have the past couple years, and I really don't see them winning anymore games then we have these past few seasons.

I would guess 8 wins for the raiders this season, throwing in that I think they have an edge over us in coaching and speial teams. I think 9 wins is the most they can get this year, and they could possibly only win 5 or 6 games.

So in conclusion, I really have a hard time seeing where the media is getting their idea that the raiders are all of a sudden a great team, because they added a stud WR and an unproven RB. They are being so overhyped this offseason it's rediculous.

There my rant is done. :grin:

booooo oakland.

Well I haven't really seen them being overhyped and I dont really care about them, but I like to argue with you so im going to kinda defend them! In my opinion the Raiders could easily win 10 or lose 10. I think they will come out 0-3 which could really kill them mentaly, but after that the schedule gets pretty easy. As you said about Peerless Price "he only had one good season and you people think he is great" or something like that. Well I think the same can be said about the Chargers. I don't know who will win these games, but if the Chargers play like last year there is 5 loses right there. Buffalo is another weird team that they could beat and I think they will beat the Chiefs in week 9, since Priest Holmes should be injured by then. Denver is over-rated in my opinoin, after picking up all the Browns players, and I can see them beating or spliting those games. Five of the six games left are against terrible team in the Titans, Redskins, New York, and the Dolphins which are all winable. The only other team they play is the Jets which could go either way again not sure on this either.

To make it short I see them beating:
Dallas (Moss wil light them up for like 600yards like every time)
Miami
Tennessee
New York Giants
San Diego (1 of 2)
Denver (1 of 2)
KC (1 of 2)
Washington
Cleveland
Buffalo

Losing to:
Eagles
Patriots
KC (1of2)
Denver (1of2)
San Diego (1of2)
Jets

I really dont think they are that good of team I just think they have a easy schedule. Also this is the first time most of these coaches have tried to defend Moss which could cause problems.

I'm so tired of hearing about Oakland and how they're going to be so great this year. It's not like they were even close last year and this will "put them over the top" like TO did with the Eagles last year, they still suck everywhere but reciever. I also don't want to hear that Moss will make them that much better. He made our offense dynamite, don't get me wrong, but he certainly didn't carry us to the Super Bowl (or even very far in the playoffs) like the media thinks he'll do with the Raiders.

I think they are getting a little overhyped as well. Moss was huge signing for them, but they still have a questionable defense, an inconsistent QB, a new RB, and a shaky offensive line. I believe they will be better than they were last year, but I don't see them being all that great. I could be wrong though, if Moss and Collins can put up some big numbers, and Jordan can be the featured running back they have been looking for since Marcus Allen left. I guess they could have a good year.

"magicci" wrote:

booooo oakland.

Wow, what insight. Ha.

Smoot, you should put that in your blog on the site here. Great read!!!

Muchluv, you for got to compare team owners of the past few years. :lol: Now that could be a funny comparison.

The Raiders would be a safe bet to make a claim for a good season for a media person.

If they are wrong they wont get heat and they can sound smart by predicting it is going to happen.

One thing about the Raiders is they are damn explosive. Even without Moss they lived and died by the big play. Kerry Collins can bomb the ball with accuracy and he will be with Moss and Porter.

The Raiders were second to last in the entire NFL in # of plays. And yet Collins managed well over 3000 yards.

I would argue their main weakness is coaching/dicipline. They got killed on both sides of the ball on 3rd down. They were #1 in the whole NFL in offensive penalties, 6th in defensive penalties.

They have talent on their team, but they play sloppy football. If the addition of Randy Moss helps them mentaly, if it gets them serious about winning, serious about doing their jobs they could very well be 10+ game winners.

You wont see them in the superbowl, but I wouldn't be surprised if they made a wildcard. A wildcard birth in the AFC is like a division championship in the NFC.

"fred3105" wrote:

Well I haven't really seen them being overhyped and I dont really care about them, but I like to argue with you so im going to kinda defend them! In my opinion the Raiders could easily win 10 or lose 10. I think they will come out 0-3 which could really kill them mentaly, but after that the schedule gets pretty easy. As you said about Peerless Price "he only had one good season and you people think he is great" or something like that. Well I think the same can be said about the Chargers. I don't know who will win these games, but if the Chargers play like last year there is 5 loses right there. Buffalo is another weird team that they could beat and I think they will beat the Chiefs in week 9, since Priest Holmes should be injured by then. Denver is over-rated in my opinoin, after picking up all the Browns players, and I can see them beating or spliting those games. Five of the six games left are against terrible team in the Titans, Redskins, New York, and the Dolphins which are all winable. The only other team they play is the Jets which could go either way again not sure on this either.

To make it short I see them beating:
Dallas (Moss wil light them up for like 600yards like every time)
Miami
Tennessee
New York Giants
San Diego (1 of 2)
Denver (1 of 2)
KC (1 of 2)
Washington
Cleveland
Buffalo

Losing to:
Eagles
Patriots
KC (1of2)
Denver (1of2)
San Diego (1of2)
Jets

I really dont think they are that good of team I just think they have a easy schedule. Also this is the first time most of these coaches have tried to defend Moss which could cause problems.

How could you have them beating Dallas, Denver, San Diego, and KC and losing to the Jets.

The Jets have done nothing but lose this off season.

Their best CB retired(Donnie Abraham), their best linemen aside of Mawae(Kareem McKenzie), a potentially very good WR(Santana Moss), who would really excel if he had a QB who could throw anywhere over 30 yards, so they replaced Santana with Laveranues (yes that is the correct spelling) Coles, who catches 100 passes a year, and barely breaks 1000 yards, and drops alot he lead the league in dropped passes, their "All-Star" QB hasn't thrown a football in 8 months(The Most Over rated player in the league Chad Pennington), they GAVE us their best linebacker with any experience, they released Reggie Tongue, who was the only player left on their defense that I have ever heard of, they traded their first round draft pick, for who you ask? Doug Jolley. They lost their backup running back, who is gonna be really good I promise(Lamont Jordan)because they still want their 32 year old to run 25 times a game, and I was just looking at their depth chart and I do not recognize a single name on defense except for John Abraham, and no one knows if he is gonna hold out, or sign, or demand a trade, he hasn't been at any off season practices, camps, meeting or anything.

The one thing they did this season was, steal our kicker

Jets are gonna be terrible.

Actually their best linebacker would be Jonathan Vilma last years defensive player of the year. They also picked up a very promising CB in the draft in Justin Miller, just ask Smoot what he thinks of him. Truely though I really dont know much about the jets and dont really care.