It's coming soon...the NFL pre-season is right around the corner, and today I'd like to start up what I'm going to dub "The Roll Call."  Right now, I'm thinking of a few things that we as Raider fans would like to see, what we expect, and what we can do to make sure that being a lifelong Raider is just as awesome a feeling as it ever was.

First thing I want to make so very clear: as a Raider fan, we have an expectation of support for our guys.  That doesn't mean don't criticize them, please by all means if a guy isn't performing on the field, feel free to let them fly.  But what it does mean is whether we get shellacked on Monday night in a blowout or win on a Sunday night miracle, we should be behind this team just the same.  The worst kind of fan is the one that disappears during a mid-season struggle.  Support our guys.

I'd also like to start off by making a list of a few things I'd like for our guys to do next year.

1. Improve the running game from a top-10 unit to a top-5 unit.  This should not be that hard, considering we should be getting Oren O'Neal back, which should give us a great lead blocker, and hopefully he's been able to keep up his progression into an option out of the backfield as well.
2. Get out of the cellar with our passing offense.  I will not put this solely on JaMarcus Russel's shoulders.  We simply did not produce at the receiver position last year and it really hurt us in the redzone, and it put unnecessary pressure on the run game to move the chains.  So when we add a receiver at some point, we need to get on labbing this piece of our offense.
3. I would like for our defense against the run to improve, starting with our upfront guys.  I know that we've held our own in the trenches, but I also noticed Sands and Warren are gassed a lot, and I believe that we could improve our conditioning and be more effective against the run.  Nearly every team in our division has highly talented running backs, and having an advantage up front will go a long way to becoming a respectable team.
4. Improve our safety play, because to be honest, that's the weak link in our secondary.  We have an amazing guy in Asomugha, and a guy that let us trade Fabian Washington in Johnson.  All we need is a capable nickel corner, and for Huff+1 to not stink up the joint.  But improvement is direly needed.
5. In terms of winning games, of course we root for the Raiders in all 16 games, but as far as a goal goes, I would like to at very least, split the games with Denver and San Diego, and sweep the season series with the Chiefs.  That would leave us at 4-2 in the division and I like that quite a bit more than 3-3 or 2-4.

That's 5 things that we can improve on this season, and hopefully that's not too tall of an order for Tom Cable and our Oakland Raiders.  As for the Roll Call, this is where you all come in.  I want everyone who reads this to either state one of their goals for this season, or relay a moment (any season) where being a Raider fan made you as proud as you can be.  This site is a Raider Haven, so I want to make sure that we've got as many people bleeding SIlver and Black as we can.

Comment with your thoughts!