2021 Free Agency

[Jeremy408]

1 minute ago, Frankie2Gunz said:

Super bowl here we come!!!

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes. 

Top three TE in the NFL that broke a Hall of Famer‘s record last year.  The squirrel can’t be that blind lol. This is not to mention a pro bowl running back as a rookie. 

[Humble_Beast]

6 minutes ago, Jeremy408 said:

Yep. Nothing matters before that especially in the system that goes Bradley is trying to run

that's why I don't write much on Johnson from the Rams, I'll rather invest the money upfront. Have to win the LOS battle 

[Frankie2Gunz]

8 minutes ago, Jeremy408 said:

Top three TE in the NFL that broke a Hall of Famer‘s record last year.  The squirrel can’t be that blind lol. This is not to mention a pro bowl running back as a rookie. 

Are you saying that Mayock and Griden are doing a good job because they found Waller? One good player in 3 seasons together. Some fans are easy to please...  Give me a break. 

Edited March 13, 2021 by Frankie2Gunz

[Jeremy408]

1 minute ago, Frankie2Gunz said:

Are you saying that Mayock and Griden are doing a good job because they found Waller? Give me a break lol 

I think it’s over blown how bad of a job they’re doing for sure. The main thing I fault Gruden for is hiring Paul Guenther as a defensive coordinator and then sticking with him for so long. 
 

Mayock the thing I fault him for is drafting a lot of Twiner’s in a Covid year where there was not likely to be off-season training 

Everything else is situational and I don’t think anyone can fault them for that. But of course when you’re a raider fan and you’re used to losing it’s very hard to appreciate the things they’re actually going well and what’s being built.

[Jeremy408]

6 minutes ago, Humble_Beast said:

that's why I don't write much on Johnson from the Rams, I'll rather invest the money upfront. Have to win the LOS battle 

Me neither

[MrOaktown_56]

1 hour ago, NYRaider said:

I wouldn't mind JOK at #17 either because Littleton is likely gone after this season unless he absolutely balls out. Adding an edge like Yanick/Lawson, a safety like JJ3, JOK at #17 and then double dipping on DT in round 2/3 with Levi Onwuzurike and Tyler Shelvin would give us some pieces on defense. 

A DL rotation of Lawson, Ferrell, Crosby, Onwuzurike, Hurst, Irving, and Shelvin could actually be pretty decent. 

That's along the lines of what I was thinking. Possibly JOK in rd 1 and a DT in rd 2. Nixon or Onwuzurike. Might need to move up a few spots to get Nixon or Onwuzurike, but it would be worth it.

[Frankie2Gunz]

12 minutes ago, Jeremy408 said:

I think it’s over blown how bad of a job they’re doing for sure. The main thing I fault Gruden for is hiring Paul Guenther as a defensive coordinator and then sticking with him for so long. 
 

Mayock the thing I fault him for is drafting a lot of Twiner’s in a Covid year where there was not likely to be off-season training 

Everything else is situational and I don’t think anyone can fault them for that. But of course when you’re a raider fan and you’re used to losing it’s very hard to appreciate the things they’re actually going well and what’s being built.

It’s been the same excuses for 20 years... it’s the DC’s fault, fire him and is the same terrible D. It’s the HC, fire him and is the same inept results... it’s the GMs fault, fire him and more terrible FA signings and draft picks.

Explain to me this grand plan you speak of because I’m seeing very few elite players on this roster abs the D is a flat out joke. 

Edited March 13, 2021 by Frankie2Gunz

[Humble_Beast]

any stud DL on the trade block? I would be interested in trading a day 2 pick for a stud on the DL.

[Jeremy408]

Just now, Frankie2Gunz said:

It’s been the same excuses for 20 years... it’s the DC’s fault, fire him and is the same terrible D. It’s the HC, fire him and is the same inept results... it’s the GMs fault, fire him and more terrible FA signings and draft picks.

Explain to me this grand plan you speak of because I’m seeing very few elite players on this roster. 

Again I actually understand your frustration because I’ve been a raider fan and had to experience the same thing for the last 20 years so I know where a lot of the frustration comes from because I’ve experienced the same thing. You get to a point where anything short of playoffs and the mentality is as if we were a bottom five team. Because in reality that’s what it feels like. To be honest it’s where the whole trade for Russell Wilson or Deshaun Watson idea comes into play. People just want to win. People just want to see results.
 

Like I said earlier in the three years that Gruden i and mayock have been leading the team, there are a few things that I actually fault them for. A lot of it again is circumstantial. But the key things that are very problematic would be last year’s drafting of players on the prospects that they would switch positions in a year where there was no off-season to do so. The signing of Carl Nassib was also really bad. And then Gruden hiring Paul Gunther as a defense of coordinator investing in whatever it was that his “system” was and waiting 2 1/2 seasons to fire him. everything else I can see why the decisions were made.

Meanwhile there are a lot of good things happening. 

1.We know who our franchise quarterback is(which you can’t say for half of the league)

2.we have a top 10 offense with impact players at running back tight end and left tackle 

3.We have a strong passing attack and a strong running game

4. We beat some really playoff football teams last year(Something that didn’t happen even in 2016 when we went 12-4 against del rio)

The reality is our defense didn’t show up and it cost us games that if they were slightly better we would’ve won three more games and being 11-5 

While our defense did horribly last year we’ve brought in a DC that 

A. Actually had success in this league on different teams and

B. Has had to build defenses from scratch

C. Has had success with young players which we have plenty of

Realistically we’re in a place where if we improve our pass rush(primarily inside But we can also use a pass rush specialist) and we get a free safety that actually fits the cover 3 scheme, we should be exponentially better.

[Frankie2Gunz]

30 minutes ago, Jeremy408 said:

Again I actually understand your frustration because I’ve been a raider fan and had to experience the same thing for the last 20 years so I know where a lot of the frustration comes from because I’ve experienced the same thing. You get to a point where anything short of playoffs and the mentality is as if we were a bottom five team. Because in reality that’s what it feels like. To be honest it’s where the whole trade for Russell Wilson or Deshaun Watson idea comes into play. People just want to win. People just want to see results.
 

Like I said earlier in the three years that Gruden i and mayock have been leading the team, there are a few things that I actually fault them for. A lot of it again is circumstantial. But the key things that are very problematic would be last year’s drafting of players on the prospects that they would switch positions in a year where there was no off-season to do so. The signing of Carl Nassib was also really bad. And then Gruden hiring Paul Gunther as a defense of coordinator investing in whatever it was that his “system” was and waiting 2 1/2 seasons to fire him. everything else I can see why the decisions were made.

Meanwhile there are a lot of good things happening. 

1.We know who our franchise quarterback is(which you can’t say for half of the league)

2.we have a top 10 offense with impact players at running back tight end and left tackle 

3.We have a strong passing attack and a strong running game

4. We beat some really playoff football teams last year(Something that didn’t happen even in 2016 when we went 12-4 against del rio)

The reality is our defense didn’t show up and it cost us games that if they were slightly better we would’ve won three more games and being 11-5 

While our defense did horribly last year we’ve brought in a DC that 

A. Actually had success in this league on different teams and

B. Has had to build defenses from scratch

C. Has had success with young players which we have plenty of

Realistically we’re in a place where if we improve our pass rush(primarily inside But we can also use a pass rush specialist) and we get a free safety that actually fits the cover 3 scheme, we should be exponentially better.

Jacobs who averaged 3.9 YPC is a top 10 RB in your opinion, Yikes.  Some of you guys on here are such homers and make him out to be AP in his prime.  Can you not see that he lacks explosiveness?  You're flat out wrong if you think Jacobs is a top 10 RB in the NFL.  Keep living in fantasy land because I find it amusing. 

Miller has had one good season in his career and is hardly a top 10 player at his position. Keep dreaming...

AB trade was a disaster, the signing of Joyner was terrible, the signing of Nassib was worthless, Collins worthless, T. Williams was a joke, Trent Brown turned out to be a total disaster.  

Drafting Bowden disaster, Ruggs (who I like by the way) production wise was terrible, Abram... fans are calling for his head and for him to switch positions to have any value, Arnette was torched all last season, Ferrell our top 5 pick has been a disappointment and that is an understatement. 

Like I said most of you fans keep the excuses coming and are embarrassed year after year.  Rob Ryan was brought in to fix the D...  Disaster. Here comes John Marshall to save the day...  Disaster.  Don't worry we have Jason Tarver waiting in the wings to turn this terrible D around...  disaster.  Wait, we have KNJ who had a SB winning D in Seattle, he has to turn it around.  Disaster...  Here comes Gunther to save the day and that ended in a disaster.  

Do you see a pattern here? You can live in your reality distortion field and come with with low brow excuses all you want but reality is this D is devoid of talent and needs a massive in flux of talent to contend.  No D coordinator can work with our current roster and have success...  None.

Sadly the Raiders are still considered a dumpster fire around the league where players careers go to die.  No player wants to come here and get embarrassed on Sunday yet every year clueless fans think that this is some desirable organization to play for.  

Edited March 13, 2021 by Frankie2Gunz

[Humble_Beast]

people act like we are coming off 3 straight 3-13 seasons under Gruden. Sure we could have drafted better, but people act like the world is ending. 

[dante9876]

33 minutes ago, Humble_Beast said:

people act like we are coming off 3 straight 3-13 seasons under Gruden. Sure we could have drafted better, but people act like the world is ending. 

For 100 million and the resources he was afforded by tearing down everything when he got here. We should be better period. 

[Jeremy408]

4 hours ago, Frankie2Gunz said:

Jacobs who averaged 3.9 YPC is a top 10 RB in your opinion, Yikes.  Some of you guys on here are such homers and make him out to be AP in his prime.  Can you not see that he lacks explosiveness?  You're flat out wrong if you think Jacobs is a top 10 RB in the NFL.  Keep living in fantasy land because I find it amusing. 

Miller has had one good season in his career and is hardly a top 10 player at his position. Keep dreaming...

AB trade was a disaster, the signing of Joyner was terrible, the signing of Nassib was worthless, Collins worthless, T. Williams was a joke, Trent Brown turned out to be a total disaster.  

Drafting Bowden disaster, Ruggs (who I like by the way) production wise was terrible, Abram... fans are calling for his head and for him to switch positions to have any value, Arnette was torched all last season, Ferrell our top 5 pick has been a disappointment and that is an understatement. 

Like I said most of you fans keep the excuses coming and are embarrassed year after year.  Rob Ryan was brought in to fix the D...  Disaster. Here comes John Marshall to save the day...  Disaster.  Don't worry we have Jason Tarver waiting in the wings to turn this terrible D around...  disaster.  Wait, we have KNJ who had a SB winning D in Seattle, he has to turn it around.  Disaster...  Here comes Gunther to save the day and that ended in a disaster.  

Do you see a pattern here? You can live in your reality distortion field and come with with low brow excuses all you want but reality is this D is devoid of talent and needs a massive in flux of talent to contend.  No D coordinator can work with our current roster and have success...  None.

Sadly the Raiders are still considered a dumpster fire around the league where players careers go to die.  No player wants to come here and get embarrassed on Sunday yet every year clueless fans think that this is some desirable organization to play for.  

Wait a minute so he wasn’t a top 10 running back as a rookie? Yeah his numbers went down this year but so did most of the offensive line. Don’t get me wrong I thought the Falcons game was the worst game of his career but again let’s not go over blown and start to say that he doesn’t have explosion anymore LOL

Call Miller gave up one sack the entire season. I don’t know if 10 other left tackles did that so enlighten me if there were 

OK so here you’re now getting into some of the circumstantial moves that were made. Let’s go down the line

We traded a 3rd round pick For Antonio brown who is considered the best receiver in the entire NFL at the time we traded for him. It just so happened that the off-season that we got him he cryo-freezes his feet and then goes crazy at practice. Even With that the patriots pick him up and then after they cut him the Buccaneers picked him up once his whole legal thing was cleared. So besides us to Super Bowl teams picked him up which speaks to his talent. Sure it was a gamble to some extent but for a third round pick you could have arguably  the best receiver in the NFL, i’m sure nobody on this forum was arguing about it at the time because it was CIRCUMSTANTIAL

The signing of Lamarcus Joyner I was talking about this earlier today on another page but again this falls under the we got him for Paul Gunther and Paul Gunther didn’t use him right. remember when we signed him he was one of the best safeties we could’ve got and so we sign him only to put him at Nickel For absolutely no reason. But again that goes with bringing in a coordinator that wasn’t very good and supplying him with players he asked for which lead to players playing positions they shouldn’t have. But overall in making that move you have to make the move that supports what the coordinator Is trying to do so it was CIRCUMSTANTIAL

The signing of Nassib it was garbage move simply because you paid 9 million for third defensive end that has never shown to be a pass or a specialist in the NFL like I mentioned in the last post that is one of the things that they have to answer for. NOT  CIRCUMSTANTIAL just plain bad

Malik Collins was brought in on a one year deal because Rod Marinelli vouch for how good he was and he did have six sacks and defensive tackle  not to mention he didn’t cost very much. Be honest he’s actually is a similar signing for what you want Sheldon Rankins for. he got hurt in camp and was never right. It’s a non-issue because it was a one year deal that what is low risk high reward in the first place. CIRCUMSTANTIAL

Tyrell Williams may seem like a stupid idea now but at the time It made sense given what he was being brought in to do. No one remembers now because of the fact that Antonio Brown went crazy but he was actually brought in to be a #2 receiver that was supposed to take advantage of the mismatches because Antonio Brown was going to be getting double teamed and was a height weight speed mismatch(Who went for 1000 yards when given the chance to be the number one receiver When Keenan Allen got hurt). Antonio brown situation goes terribly and now this guy is rusted into a number one receiver role that he wasn’t brought in for on top of that he tears a ligament in his feet and then the very next year gets injured his shoulder and is out for the season. CIRCUMSTANTIAL

Trent Brown(Who I didn’t like the signing at the time) Is a freak of nature regardless of what any Of us thing and when he played was arguably the best right tackle in the NFL. (even when he was overweight). In the Bears game he single-handedly destroyed Khalil Mack. Unfortunately the thing that nobody can account for when someone gets paid is whether or not they’ll stay healthy. He ended up only playing 16 games out of two years. CIRCUMSTANTIAL

I think that covers all of the FAs that you mentioned let’s move onto the draft picks

Lynn Bowden I think I already mentioned the very key mistake that Mayock made in drafting players that were going to switch positions in a Covid year he’s is in that category

Henry Ruggs As soon as the off-season started last year I said very early on that henry rugs was the player that the Raiders had to pick because he makes the entire office better regardless if he gets the ball or not. He is a key reason why Darren Waller and nelson Agholor career years. He makes it to where you can’t do the obvious thing and double-team Waller because he can score in one play(which he did on multiple occasions) when he’s covered one on one. He demands a double team simply because of his speed alone. I think where everyone complains about rugs comes from the fact that he statistically compared to all the receivers that were drafted after him we’re obviously more productive. But if you understand football all of them were used as number two receivers at most. You’re not gonna find a whole lot of games were cd lamb or just in Jefferson or jerry jeudy we’re covered by number one corners. Henry rugs have to be double teamed regardless of the corner that’s covering him. If Jalen Ramsey is covering him he still need a safety over the top. It’s not like that for the other receivers which is why if we got one of them our office would not have been as potent because none of them require a double team. 
 

Jonathan Abrams let me start by saying nobody pisses me off more than Abrams(and I mean nobody). He annoyed me the whole season as a fake alpha who is trying to prove himself. But even I have to say that a lot of things that people say about Abrams are completely over blown. For one this was essentially his rookie year so no it’s not do the whole he’s automatically a bust thing. Second theoretically there’s nothing the Abrams can’t do at safety(although everyone is going to say that he can’t cover which is actually false). He’s actually a really good example of a player that was used wrong. For example what a strong safety doing covering Tyreek Hill and Ty Hilton all the way down the field and a deep ball. That’s horrible use of a strong safety. Obviously there were a lot of things that he did that were just him like when he left the zone in the second Chiefs game leaving Kelce completely open. He’s obviously going to benefit from a simplified defense where he’s actually used as a box safety. Then the other thing he has to do is he has to Not do stupid pride things like hit people out of bounds or when they’re already down. But if you actually watch the last two games he stopped doing all of that stuff which was a breath of fresh air.

Damon Arnette if I all season you mean seven games sure he did but let me remind you that seven games into Trevon Mullins rookie season he was getting torched too. I’m not gonna speak too much on our net because I’ve posted an entire essay on him that you obviously have seen already and can refer back to you. An interesting question I have for you here is which corner would you have drafted at 19?

Clelin Ferrell let me start by saying a lot of the issue that people have with Ferrell is that he was drafted fourth overall. And the reason why they believe that he was reached on is because none of the scouts had him that High. During the year the scouts did have him as a top-5-10 Selection throughout his last college season and early in the off-season but he went down on draft boards because he didn’t run his 40 which left many people to assume that he was an explosive. He had the production(Led the team in sacks with  9.5 & 11.5 sacks his last 2 seasons) He was heavily decorated from a recognition standpoint. 

• Ted Hendricks Award(given to the best defensive end in college football) (2018)
• 2× CFP national champion (2016, 2018)(this is relevant because it shows that he played well against high-level competition including other top prospects)
• ACC Defensive Player of the Year (2018)
• Consensus All-American (2018)
• First-team All-American (2017, 2018)

From a film perspective he destroyed Jonah Williams in the championship game who Nick Bosa didn’t do anything against. Now the argument people usually make is that he played with other defense of lineman that went in the first round. The problem with that is the same people don’t Use that same argument when mentioning Nick Bosa playing next to chase young or vice versa.  Another reason why people are down on Farrell long before he ever played it down for the Raiders it’s because everyone wanted Josh Allen who can only really play on passing downs. But this didn’t matter when both rookies played their rookie season and while Clelin Ferrell had 4.5 sacks  (which is what Khalil Mack had his rookie year) playing next to fellow rookie max Crosby while Josh Allen had 11.5 playing next to established NFL D lineman Calais Campbell(6.5 sacks inside) and Yannick Ngakoue(sacks 8). We and the Jaguars Last year found out that when you take away other players around him he didn’t look as good before getting hurt and missing the rest of the season. Clelin Ferrell also I was in and out of the lineup for a lot of the season and they both ended up with two sacks. I think we saw his potential in the first Chiefs game when he was a key reason why we won that game defensively. He applied pressure the entire game against two tackles that were no slouch against Patrick Mahomes(not that that matters) before getting Covid and ultimately getting her in missing most of the Second half of the season. He is another good fit for the Gus Bradley system that I’m looking forward to seeing what he does. Has the production been there? No of course not. Should the production be there if you’re the number fourth overall pick? of course it should but realistically that’s not why most raider fans don’t like him it’s because he was picked fourth overall and he wasn’t on most of the mock drafts to get picked that high LOL

Again that last part I understand your frustration with how the Raiders have been since 2002 I get it. But actually the way I see it with raider fans if I don’t see them as these overly optimistic Head in the clouds people. I see the more as most of them don’t really watch film so when I try to have a football conversation all they really know our stats and what analysts say Who will always find someone to blame because they look at everything from the standpoint of the win and loss column because of the lack of success that the Raiders of had. I think that’s more accurate. The way most raider fans operate sadly is that they don’t care about the things that we’re doing well when we don’t make the playoffs.  This leads them to having unrealistic expectation for rookies and so on. The player doesn’t produce their rookie year or gets hurt then they want to draft a replacement in the first round the very next year . They also want a newquarterback every year they don’t make the playoffs. As for me I haven’t really liked most of the movie the Raiders have made since 2002 with the exception of hiring Hue Jackson as the head coach (I actually liked him) I didn’t like Reggie McKenzie I didn’t like Jack Del Rio. Anyone who watched football Knew that 2016 season was a fluke. Even back then I was never overly high on their Carr(it’s funny I actually liked him better after year one in Grudens system then I liked him in that 2016 season that everybody loved during because the second half of 2018 he actually learn how to read defenses). 
 

overall I actually like when Mike Mayock and John Gruden are building(specially what they’ve done with the cap this past week) and it’s actually going to be interesting to see what they do when they only have to focus on fixing one side of the ball now which you couldn’t say for more than maybe two years out of the entire 20 years since they lost the Super Bowl in 2002.

Edited March 13, 2021 by Jeremy408

[Jeremy408]

1 hour ago, Humble_Beast said:

people act like we are coming off 3 straight 3-13 seasons under Gruden. Sure we could have drafted better, but people act like the world is ending. 

Right people act like the sky is falling 8-8 When in reality if we were in the NFC we would be a playoff team LOL

[Humble_Beast]

6 minutes ago, Jeremy408 said:

Right people act like the sky is falling 8-8 When in reality if we were in the NFC we would be a playoff team LOL

8-8 and our defense was a joke(bottom tier 30-32 bad), ideally we can get it up to average. At least get it to the 20th range, and hold some teams to under 28 and a few turnovers would make such a difference. OL was missing two starters all year too. improve a few spots on OL and develop our wideouts, and hopefully Jacobs has a breakout year 3. could easily earn more wins. 

Edited March 13, 2021 by Humble_Beast