Fixing the Raiders: Not as Hard as One Might Think

I would have to disagree about Branch playing well. He is getting beat far more than Huff in the passing game. I think Huff has actually covered pretty well this year he just stinks at tackling and Branch is about the complete opposite.

As far as CBs go, I am still excited to see what our draft picks from this year can do. Both our safeties and our CBs.

Biggest issue is definitely the O-line though. It would be nice to have a first rounder this year to go after a LT but like you said, we are probably better off targeting a C or LT in round 2.

Why?

Because a large part of the problem will not, ever, be addressed while Al is in control: he is directly responsible for many of the problems. He still doesn’t see that, refuses to see it, or just ignores it, but there it is. We can identify problems all day, and present solutions all night, but until Al is ready to make the changes that he has resisted for years… we will continue in the same fashion that we are now.

But, to the suggestions:

QB – Gradkowski is probably better suited at this time to be the QB, not because he is so talented, but because his skill set is better suited to play right now. He gets rid of the ball quickly, and feels pressure better. His decision-making is decent, but his accuracy is not that good, nor his arm strength. Deep passes will never be his thing, and that isn’t the worst problem to have; it is a ‘deficiency’ that he shares with a number of other QB’s in the league. What he will do is throw the ball up for grabs; this has not resulted in a lot of turnovers, yet, but that is due more to luck than anything else. Injuriesa re a concern, but we’ll see what happens there. I like his style of play, but he is not really a starter; I would love to have him as a backup. Unfortunately, right now, there is no real starter, nor one on the horizon.

WR – I am not giving passes to this group, in part because they wouldn’t catch them anyway… lol Seriously, they can be blamed for poor route-running and questionable hands; that is something that everybody seems to overlook when making excuses for them. It is not their fault that they seem to have crappy coaching, but when that’s the case, maybe they need to do something on their own; million dollar paydays should result in million dollar effort, something I am not seeing.

It is true, and I have said it more than once, that this group needs to have veteran leadership to take some of the pressure off while they learn the position better, but that isn’t happening. Al has had more than one opportunity to look at relatively inexpensive vets, and passed every time. He and this coaching staff are locked into playing the youngsters on the roster, and that is that. Hoping for anything different is, IMO, pissing into the wind…

YPC – Partly due to the OL, and partly due to the OC. After the first quarter, the play calling was fairly unimaginative. That may partly be blamed on QB play, but I only give this minimal credence: when a poor passblocking OL is put into 3rd and long by questionable playcalling and poor execution, it doesn’t generally bode well. Regardless, the blocking was not that good, and the middle of the defense didn’t give. It would have been nice to see some play-action early, traps and draws, all of which ask less from the line, as they use the defense’s aggression against itself. Maybe next week…

Defense – This goes back in part to coaching; why is it that it has been a number of years that the same excuse is being used, that gap discipline is lacking? Why is it that the players haven’t learned that discipline? Because the coaches either haven’t taught it, or haven’t enforced it. There are plenty of teams that have young players that don’t have the same problem, or at least not to the same level. Youth is only a partial excuse, because pretty much every team has some young players starting; not every team has the same level of undisciplined play.

When the defense has played better, they have too often been left on the field by the offense. Tired players make more mistakes, and I think that that is even more common when they start pressing to get off the field.

It doesn’t kill me that the defense gives up big plays, that it pretty much inevitable nowadays. What kills me is the inconsistency of play, and of planning. Again, that speaks to me of coaching.

So, what do I see as fixes? In order that they were mentioned:

1) An OL will go a long way towards helping any QB that starts. Franchise QB’s come out every year, so trading for one right now is not necessary; what is necessary is to be able to give whoever is back there some time to throw, and to have a ground game to help protect him as well.

2) Veteran leadership in the form of a solid WR. It doesn’t have to be the flashiest guy out there, because with our line right now, the QB wouldn’t have time to hit him anyway. But a solid, dependable guy that can give the young guys time to develop, which would also point to something else that I will mention later.

3) Again, an OL that can create better running lanes consistently, combined with a more varied offense. Keeping the defense guessing is the key with a weaker OL, and I am not seeing that happen on a regular basis. I like the backs that we have; there is a nice mix of what they can do, and I want to see what Jackson does when he finally has them both at the same time.

4) Discipline is the key to the defense, and an improved offense, as detailed above, will help that too.

Everything that I mentioned above has one common denominator, though: not one area has improved much, or at all, as well as undisciplined play in every facet. That speaks to one thing, in my opinion: COACHING. Or a lack of it, in this case. The single biggest need on this team is a credible staff of coaches, that know their positions and that can teach them. A staff that knows how to instill and enforce disciplined play. A staff that knows how to fit players into a system, to buy into it, and to play within it. I have said before, and will say again, that until this team gets a legitimate coaching staff, that we will not improve significantly, even with more talent.

In line with that, players need to know that they cannot go to Al to address grievances witht the staff: the coaches are the line of communication to Al, except in extreme circumstances. And if the players aren’t able to go to Al, he needs to not go to them as well. That is a model that I believe most teams use, and every one that has long-term success. The Raiders were the exception to the rule, but they are no longer successful, so changes need to be made.

Easy to see, easy to say, not so easy to do, as things stand now…