Saying hello from Bleeding Green Nation

As usual, LiveAdam dominates the world, but I can’t help adding my own 2 cents.

I think the Raiders are gonna be really really really tough to pass on this year. With Morrison and Howard behind the line, combined with the best cornerback in the league and the rapidly emerging Chris Johnson, as well as Greg Ellis and Trevor Scott coming off the edges, opposing QBs are gonna face an uphill battle. Plus when you have safeties that hit as hard as Tyvon Branch and Mike Mitchell, receivers are gonna think twice about going over the middle.

But then again, why pass when you can run for 8 billion yards a game? In addition to our bi-annual destruction courtesy of LaDanian Tomlinson, we can also look forward to Steve Slaton, Brandon Jacobs, your Mr. Westbrook, Marion Barber, Felix Jones, Willie Parker, Clinton Portis, Willis McGahee and Ray Rice. Ugh. Any one of those guys can rack up 100+ yards on 20-25 carries against our sieve of a run D. And they will unless things improve and soon.

In addition to Morrison and Howard’s pass-coverage skills, one of the things I love about them is that they are high motor players with a nose for the ball. All too often, as LiveAdam said, their pursuit skills are limited to stopping an 8 or 10 yard run from becoming a 60 yard gallop to the end zone. Their tackling skills are good and they could be effective (if not necessarily great) run containers if the D-Line was more dominant.

It’s a concern I have with Trevor Scott right now, who could develop into a truly awesome pass rusher, but currently has zero ability to stop the run. Witness how the 49ers victimized him in the last preseason game. I hope our defensive coaches come to their senses and put Jay Richardson in as starter since he has much better run stopping skills. With Ellis on the other end, you’ll always have a pass rusher in and Scott can come in as situational pass rusher for at least this year and try to round out his skill set next offseason. I don’t see it happening though: Scott is, by all accounts, a personal project of Davis and that pretty much settles the matter. But I digress.

A run defense ultimately lives or dies by the defensive tackles, though, and that’s the problem. Kelly and Warren are both well-rounded, but maddeningly, infuriatingly inconsisent. When they’re on, they are on and when they’re off, they might as well not be on the field. William Joseph is a guy who if he played up to his talent level—a former first round pick!—could be an effective weapon against the run, but as it is he’s only a decent backup. I’m really high on Desmond Bryant and I think his upside extends to the moon right now, but he’s raw. I’m not even gonna talk about Terdell Sands.

Let’s put it this way: the tackle position is so thin that last year we were trying to see if an ex-tight end could work at that spot.

Mike Mitchell: I think once he gets healthy and learns, by the end of next year he’ll have shut up a LOT of people who mocked his selection in the second round. Watching the clips of him I was impressed, as was everyone, with his ability to lay on a vicious hit, but something else made me even more excited. If you watch him on film, you’ll see he has an OUSTANDING ability to read a play and close on the ball-carrier in a hurry. His nose for the ball is already awesome and if he works hard—something his enthusiasm and positive attitude gives me high hopes for—he’ll be something special.

Finally, there’s Hey-Bey. Frankly, I would’ve drafted Maclin or Raji, but DHB is what we’ve got and as time goes by, I feel better about it. He’s a solid kid who wants to be with the Raiders and has been putting in extra time while everyone else is at dinner working on his catching and route-running. As for his in-game use, I think his speed makes it obvious. If he’s already drawing double coverage after two pre-season games, it shows his speed is making defensive co-ordinators nervous. If you single cover him, he can get 50 yards down the field in a flash and JaMarcus has the arm to get it to him. If DHB can perfect his route-running and Russell can work out his accuracy issues, they have the potential to be a lethal combination.

The best thing about having DHB though is the aforementioned double coverage he can draw because of his speed. That will open up the medium-range passes for guys like Chaz Schilens, Zach Miller and Louis Murphy (who I’m way impressed with) to absolutely gash defenses for gains in the 7-15 yard range. Not so incidentally, J-Russ has taken the biggest strides so far, I think, with his accuracy and decision making when making passes in that range. If DHB only catches 35 passes a year, but opens up space for crossing routes, slants and throws underneath, he’ll be worth every penny.