I’m not going weird here but I don’t read Keys words as bashing the Raiders at all. I take it to mean something along the lines of maybe being cut is what will make him reinvent his attitude and be the wake up call he needs to excel his game. I don’t think it will work for his football skills but I still don’t read it as “bashing” the Raiders. Maybe it’s because when I was in my early 20’s I found myself in jail one night and it allowed me to reassess my life for a few hours. Without going into details, looking back, going to jail that night may have been the best thing that happened to me as it forced me to make a decision to go left or right at the fork in the road I was traveling. Too sappy?

In my opinion, many of these players are just taking advantage of the situation. I bet every one of them has been to the grocery store, bar around friends........

If resigning KJ is’t admitting to the failure of PG I don’t know what else would be. We let him go last offseason for peanuts despite elevated play from him half way through the season. Was Paul Guenther so incapable of evaluating and developing talent that he was letting players go when he shouldn’t have while simultaneously stunting the development of the young players we kept?

This D and this roster must be at least somewhat salvageable otherwise Bradley wouldn’t be here with his coordinator staff. These guys are a known and proven commodity so why would they bother coming here if the roster was really that awful? I actually don't credit Guenther for this. I am firmly of the opinion that Gruden has specifically purged as many players as he can from the last regime other than Carr whom he said he wanted to coach when he came back. I honestly think he has traded players, cut players and signed players in an attempt to make this team his and his alone. By cutting Joseph, he continued that plan, but by signing him back, he is now a Gruden player.

The logic is infallible.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/Mark_Davis_%28American_football%29.jpg/220px-Mark_Davis_%28American_football%29.jpg

Look Xramfan I told you I'll buy the wings and beer next time...Now go gas up the minivan :grin: Mark better not be wearing that shit when he goes to eat wings. Welcome to Stain City, population: Mark Davis.

FA signings have clarified the needs:

What do we NOT need:
1. likely no RB needed
2. likely no more defensive lineman unless someone great falls and we can't afford to not take them
3. no more WR's
4. No more TE's
5. likely no QB unless someone late appears and we want a 3rd string dev guy

What do we MAYBE need:
1. We don't really have a SAM on the roster, so maybe that is something we look for. I think there are a couple of SAM type LB's are available mid to late in the draft who could play special teams to start, so that may be an option for the 2nd 3rd round pick through the end of the draft.
2. A good edge could appear that we think could supplant Key or some of the other roster guys - same as above, and a guy like Golston from Iowa is an edge, but is also a run stuffer who can play 5-tech could help fill a role

What do we DEFINITELY need:
1. OT help - preferably a starting RT this year and beyond
2. OG help - even if Incognito is healthy for this year, we need more for the future
3. Safety help - I would rather go into the season expecting a combination of Heath/Joseph/Abram starting than put a rookie out there immediately (rookie safeties lose game!), but I can see us picking 2 this year
4. CB help - We have some young talent, and I'd love to see us add a slot guy like Poole, but even if we do, we need to protect against the fact that Arnette may not make it.

My preference is to trade down, but as we stand:

1st round - RT
2nd round - Safety
3rd round - OG (lots of RT/OG combos available at this point in the draft);
3rd round - CB / Safety #2
4th round - Safety #2 / CB
5th round - OL Depth
5th round - DB depth / Edge / DE
6th round - best player available

I would add OT to the list to go along with QB and WR. I am worried that some of the edge or pass rushers are marginal top of the first round players. I would rather go safety or even CB instead of reaching for a pass rusher. I am also sure that our LB corps has been sub-standard for a long time, so if a stud LB is there, he would be welcome addition. A RT that could be a monster in the run game would be a strong addition to the team. Not sure the Raiders have that road grader right now and also think some quality depth at guard would not hurt.

Please don’t hope an elite player falls to us.... it’s so much more frustrating when we pick some random 3rd round prospect with an elite prospect on the board lol. True....

I have a feeling a few will be there and the Raiders draft someone else....

I used to love watching the draft. But after decades of bad Raiders picks I now dread it....

I’m excited about this (not being sarcastic either). He’s a better player than any safety we had.

Good. Maybe Abram can go to the bench where he belongs. There's no sugar coating it, the dude has no business being a starter at this point. If it wasn't for a couple of sound bites on Hard Knocks, most people on here giving him a pass, would probably be preaching differently

He was actually showing improvement when he got injured. He shouldn't have been let go in the first place.

You know Abram hasn’t been good when the team is considering bringing back the guy he was supposed to replace.

Ferrell is a decent player.

If you want to shit on him because you think you should get more out of a #4 overall, go for it. I'm not changing my view of him and I'm not going to shit on him because John and Mayock reached on him.

He's a good guy and he's professional.

Ferrell improved from year one to year two and the defense was better when he was there.

So there is that.

He's got a great arm. His zip he can throw on short and intermediate passes are some of the best in the league.
Great accuracy.
Reads defenses very well.
Excellent, quick release.
Enough athletic ability even though I feel he could use it more, I'm not too sad he doesn't. I'm all about our QB not taking unnecessary hits, regardless of who it is.
He spreads the ball around very well making everyone on the field a viable target.
Gets the ball out quickly when needed and did well against the blitz last season.

Stuff he can work on:

While he throws a fantastic deep ball, he can put too much air under it at times.
Holding onto the ball and not fumbling but let's be real, some blindside hits, anyone will fumble.
He plays too conservative at times when it's not necessarily needed.
His pocket awareness is good but it could be better and I would like to see it improve.

Might be forgetting a thing or two but that's it for me. That's my major gripe with him when he does throw deep. He seems to try to place the ball rather than just winging it & letting the receiver run under it or make a play on it. Just seems to loft it and the receiver can't do anything after the catch

Swifty wrote Thu Apr 08, 2021 4:04 am:Is Hooker still available?

Hooker's are always available. Escorts are not

Well his numbers dropped across the board because he missed 4 games, but thats just the basic stats. His hurries was up from 8 to 10, and his pressures was up from 15 to 21.

I don't think Ferrell will ever be as flashy as you'd want a top 5 pick to be, but I think he will be an above average starter for years to come. My biggest concern with him currently is his availability.

It wasn't a mistake, because they drafted him there on purpose. They knew he wasnt a superstar, they were looking for a guy that would get to year 3 and start having steady production for the next 10 years. And he might just be that.
He is never going to be a star, but I think he will have a few stand out years, maybe even a pro bowl or 2, come year 7 or 8. I think he will turn out to be an important part of the defense, instead of a football playing Jesse, Ferrell is more of a steady Eddie.

A hooker in Vegas. It almost writes itself

I'd never thought about it, but if asked, I would've just assumed that if a player of C-Wood's caliber was available guidance, that Abram would've gotten on the phone with him in a hot second.

In any profession, the opportunity to have a mentor, let alone a great mentor, is priceless.

Sallmon is an idiot if he doesn't reach out to Charles Woodson. It turns out that Abram actually did reach out to Woodson, multiple times. Abram's agent posted screenshots of Abram messaging and posting to CWood's instagram multiple times asking directly to get together for dinner and talk football and less directly talking about wanting to meet him etc. Woodson had no response. No guarantees that Woodson ever saw that because he might not manage his own instagram account, but the effort was made on Abram's part.

I have to wonder if Woodson would have done the same as a young Raider - he wasn't known for his study habits when he was with the Raiders - quite the opposite.

Anyway, I'm not certain that Woodson is Abram's best resource, but it's a positive that he's made an effort.

I had posted this a while ago in chat, thought it might be helpful to share it here as well.
Just some perspectives, as usual...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brace yourself, this is a very lengthy post.
Feel free to skip in case you are not interested.

As someone who watched Drake very closely throughout the year via all-22...
please let me share some of my takes.

1. ARI run blocking was pretty bad. I don’t care what their grades might look like.
On tape it was clear the scheme and play designs (Kliff is for real and he is not yet at his best) helped their production & OL tremendously, not the other way around.
Collectively as a team, it also got worse when K1 got hurt.

Also didn’t help the team was without Maxx Williams, who is among the league’s best run blocking TEs, for the majority of the year.

2. Comparing Drake’s usage in MIA vs ARI;
Drake was catching the ball much more with the Dolphins. He was not used that way with the Cards.

In 2019 he went over 5 targets in 6 out of 9 games (with 9 targets as a ceiling) with MIA but hit 5 targets only once after getting traded to ARI. It was worse in 2020, Drake averaged just above 1 target in the first 10 weeks.
It got better after that but not by much as he still averaged just a little over 3 targets per game. He was vastly underutilized in that area.

Surprised?

3. In his early days, Drake was known as a more east-west shifty runner who loved to bounce to the outside trying to go big and create things out of his Individual skills both via running and catching the football.

With the Cardinals however, Drake was used as a primary runner and served a totally different role.
Kliff demanded a lot more disciplined version of Drake, trying to make him a north-south runner.
Another surprising stat? 83% of Drake’s runs in 2020 were ‘inside’ runs.

I didn’t have the access to percentage breakdown for 2019 and though I am sure it’s not as one-sided, it shouldn’t have been much different in a sense that Drake still ran north-south for the majority of time with the Cards.

4. People who haven’t really watched games or just how Drake has been playing with the Cards in 2020 vs 2019 needs to just watch this highlights video.

https://youtu.be/9vttvvbImME

Drake’s biggest runs on his best day as a Cardinal were not ‘to the outside’.
They were mostly inside runs where he just attacked the hole decisively with just a little one cut move.

5. It’s also of my focused observation Drake went back to his ‘old habits’ early in 2020 and tried to compensate for his OL sub-standard run blocking. He was undisciplined as a runner earlier.

He danced, hesitated and tried to go outside WAYYYYYY too much.
If he had just hit those holes, he would have easily had 50 yards by half time almost guaranteed.
And that’s with a bad run blocking OL. The pivotal moment came in the Jets game...

He was again kept bouncing to the outside all game long. No doubt he had quite an unproductive night...until that very moment, right before his TD drive. The coaches probably had seen enough to the point where one coaching staff literally dragged him out and said something to him, likely telling him to just stop dancing.
If you have access to that matchup, just zoom in on him on that drive and you will see.

He came back a different runner. He was just laser-focused and made only some minor ‘one-cut’ type move. Kept things inside. And that was what worked for his team at that moment (without Maxx Williams).

He needed to learn to take those 4-5 yards consistently and keep grinding for it.
This whole journey in turn has benefitted him tremendously as a runner.
Because to me he has proven he is effective in every way a running back possibly could.
He is now a complete back. Running inside, outside, power, finesse or catching the ball.
You name it!

6. Also, in 2020, the Cardinals somewhat overlooked Drake’s skill sets and saved all the high-value touches for their scat back Chase Edmonds.

Edmonds got ALL those fancy outside runs and designed throws.
It’s kinda funny but it’s what it is. You may check ARI highlights to confirm what I just said here.

7. Drake suffered a ligament tear in his ankle against the Seahawks in week 10.
He rushed it back and played through it the rest of the season.

At least, it is safe to say it might have affected his effectiveness as a runner later in the year.
Drake is known for his speed and ability to create things on the outside.
His productivity might have been sabotaged to some extent due to that ankle injury.

8. These takes are not meant to serve you kool aid but they are observations I have made. They are facts.

You may interpret it the way you like. I could be wrong because all of these are what already happened.
But if history tells me anything…I myself feel extremely excited to see what he could do in our offense.
I sure hope he gets 5 targets a game on average.

He also has the 2nd gear breakaway speed Jacob lacks.
Look no further than the Cowboys game. The defense whiffed and he smoked them with ease.

Hope this helps more or less.

Radman wrote Thu Apr 01, 2021 2:15 pm:Then why did Brees' D's suck? Rodgers? Others? Brady didn't inspire the D in NE, BB did. I don't believe Brady could have magically made PG's scheme work.

They also didn't have Kyle van Noy, Dont'a Hightower or Jamie Collins.

I'd never thought about it, but if asked, I would've just assumed that if a player of C-Wood's caliber was available guidance, that Abram would've gotten on the phone with him in a hot second.

In any profession, the opportunity to have a mentor, let alone a great mentor, is priceless.

Sallmon is an idiot if he doesn't reach out to Charles Woodson.

Ferrel’s cap hit next season is $8.5 million and $10 million in 2022. His production is going to have to ramp up a lot to be worth his 5th year option. Abram is making a lot less but he was one of the worst players in the NFL last season at any position and while I’m sure he will be better under Bradley he has to improve a hell of a lot just to be average. Jospeh was nowhere near as bad a player and didn’t have his 5th year option picked up. I think it will. I think he needs to stopnbeing viewed as a top 5 pick and pass rush specialist. Which of course may be hard but it's not his fault.

Think Ferrell and Ngakoue are perfect for each other.

First Raider first round pick to sign a second contract with the team since Darren McFadden

That about sums up why we haven't been winning.

Great move, in my opinion. He's a stud LT and young. He's been durable and I've seen him play through injuries. Good for him! :moneybag: Calling him a stud is an taking it too far. He doesnt run block that well and his pass blocking is greatly aided by how fast carr gets the ball out. The jury is still out on how good a player kolton is and we paid him for what we hope he will be rather than what he is now.

16 to 88 wrote Mon Mar 29, 2021 1:34 am:Grin and bear it.

You sound like my proctologist.

This is a best team-building move so far. Drake is a long time fellow of Jacobs and comes from the same Alabama tree. You can't expect to rely on running game by running your talent into the ground.

Athletes are humans, they have their fears and struggle against injuries all the time. Not only Drake is a capable and versatile player, this is a message to Jacobs that he won't be ridden to death and thrown away. Do your best and you'll get paid like your fellow veteran RB, see? This is a fair-play move by the team and it makes everyone better.

I'm not as down on Hurst as you are, but agree that people are giving him way too much credit for his performance/potential. Thomas is a guy who played out of position before, but is on another level in terms of physical ability and potential. He was a legit 4th pick in the draft due to what he did in college playing the 3-tech, and then showing his physical abilities.

Hurst (Pro Day, so likely a tad inflated to his benefit): 6-1 1/4, 291, 4.97 40, 31" vertical, 8-8 broad jump, 4.62 shuttle, 7.74 3-cone
Thomas at Combine: 6-2 5/8, 273, 4.69 40, 35" vertical, 10-6 broad jump, 4.28 shuttle, 6.95 3-cone,

I can see the temptation to move Thomas to DE and rush him outside as he's very fast and explosive, but it's really hard to change a guy who's moves and success was based inside. Back to 3-Tech and he could be the surprise of the D this year I don’t think Hurst is pure crap at all. He’s an ok rotational 3 tech. But Irving & Thomas have near elite upside...still. I think they’ll be pretty good. That’s why Hurst is easily down the depth chart &, should barely even see the field this upcoming season. If Thomas/Irving are healthy. If Hurst is playing a meaningful amount of snaps, your team isn’t very good at DT then. That’s how I see it

Don't think we have the cap or roster space for Reed.

Shame really

Don't think Hurst is on the bubble although you never know i’d say of we signed Reed that Vickers, Jefferson & Irving will be fighting for there spots, Hurst has proven he can play that 3-Tech well when given the chance i dont know why Guenther would ever ask him to play as a bend & don't break DT when that is far from his strengths

This might be the first year in a while that the draft & FA fits our needs being that the S & T spots are deep in the draft but were weakened in FA with alot of guys not actually hitting the open market

Really like us to sign a vet CB but in reality our corner actaully showed promise at times last year Not sure why people think Hurst is a starting caliber player. Or even the main 3 tech as a rotational player. He’s shown very little. Has some pass rush as a 3 tech mostly only due to his speed. He lacks every bit the strength a DT in any role needs. Irving is in no way behind him in the depth chart even tho, he barely played a few snaps last season. He flashed in those few & has a way higher ceiling. Irving & Thomas are 1 & 2 on the DT depth chart. That’s how bad the Raiders DT situation is/was. I love their upside & happy as hell that the Raiders got them. I think they’ll both workout but, they’re all potential only at this point