The Oakland Raiders' Offensive Line Takes Shape

becoming our stud RT, with Bruce pushing him for reps once he recovers.

I’m a little concerned about the guard spots, but I think Satele and Loper will win out.

All the more reason to have a “bully” blocking tight end, Kevin Boss to be be the 6th offensive lineman. This is a must,as Reece is so involved with the passing game, that the Raiders are really going to need a tight end to help with the pass blocking.

This line does not look like they will be better than the one we fielded last year and we know what kind of production we got last year. I don’t see how this line fits into the “bully” ideals of Hue. If Veldheer goes down or does not improve from last year then we are in serious trouble. I thoughtwe would bring in some new blood for this power blocking scheme but all we’ve done is bring back guys from last year that couldn’t cut it for the most part and now we are left to scrape the bottom of the barrell in FA since Al slept through most of FA instead of restructuring contracts to ensure we could be competitive in FA and sign some guys to help this team out.

this season, im actually moderatly comfortable with this line. loper filled in fine last year for gallery and by all accounts barksdale is doin quite well in camp, though we really wont know for certain until we can see them in a preseason game.

Our rushing game was especially effective with a Gallery pulling; Loper played decently but was a drop-off.
LT- I’m happy with Veld at LT and believe Mario’s a decent back-up.
C- We’re set at C w/ Samson backing Wiz.
RG- Walker would be perfect. Carlisle was adequate and this is where BC got some reps and seems his best postion.
RT- I too believe in ol’ Joe with Khalif backing him.

WE LOST ZACH!

Fuck Al, what are you doing?
Saving the money for a better TE?

“Hearing that the clock is ticking for the Ravens to sign WR Malcom Floyd. Other suitors include Vikings, Cardinals, Panthers, Raiders.”

Doesn’t seem worth the money he’s set to make this year.

That Guy immediately becomes the best free agent available imo

but he’s very overweight…lol. I wonder what else can go wrong this offseason.

Once we found out that we were over the Cap by 15 to 20 Mill, we all knew things were going to be hard. We drafted linemen and CBs in order to prepare for People leaving.

Gallery left. Why? Because he thought he was worth 8 Million Per year. Oakland wanted him for 2. I guess he couldn’t be met at 5, and that the only reason why he was here for was fired because he was the root of getting the Team sued (Does ANYBODY remember the Press Conference? When you mess with Al’s money, you get cut…Exactly how it is on the streets.) He chose to leave.

Seymour was given 22 Mil. Overpaid? Yes. Needed? YES. We would be MUCH WORSE I’d Seymour Left and Nnamdi and Miller Stayed. Whoever says otherwise is an IDIOT.

Nnamdi left. Why? He wasn’t happy here, and he wanted to be with a winner. He didn’t have faith in the team.

Miller left. Why? He liked what he saw in Seattle, and was given a gracious offer. We would have been pissed if he got 7 mil per year from us.

Now, should we have tagged Miller? Yes. We didn’t. It was decided that Defense is more important. Did we think Miller was going to sign here? YES. However, it was a gamble we missed.

That being said, Let’s look at the OL now. Gallery is gone. Veldheer is here. Carlisle is here. Satele is here. Wizniewski is here. All we need is a Left Guard. But to say that this line is weaker than last year’s line is STUPID. We lave everybody but a RT…who wasn’t that good in Pass Protecting ANYWAY. All we needed was a LG. To say an Injured Gaither would be best to sign is retarded. Pay him, he gets flattened, he’s out for the season? DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE AT ALL? Huh?? We didn’t go after a guard; too much restructuring to do. And people were being overpaid in the past and NOT Delivering.

We need now, to sign Kevin Boss. OVERPAY HIM. Because Great Players only come to us when we overpay…does anybody notice that shit? I would pay him 7 – 8 mil per year. I would bring in an LB. 2 even. We haven’t heard anything about it…Rogers is gone, so we need to have faith (I can’t believe I am saying this) in Chris Johnson..HOPE he does what he did in 2008. We brought in Depth to our line, which was needed Horribly.

My point is, UNTIL the Free Agency Period ends, and I am Quoting Dan Fouts because it comes to that, QUIT YER BITCHING. Here is why:

1) Miller was our Key loss THAT CAN BE REPLACED. However, If Boss or Bo Scaife isn’t signed, I will be Pissed.

2) Other than Nnamdi, the defense is the SAME. We kept Huff. So..saying 1 Player makes our defense is Insulting to every other single player that played D for us last year.

3) Is our line weaker? Yes. Is it that much weaker? No, not really. Gallery CAN be replaced, which leads to my next point.

4) As stated before, NEXT MAN UP. We have players that can do it.

5) LET US NOT FORGET that It wasn’t Cable that changed the office; The man that did is OUR CURRENT HEAD COACH. So Do Not attest Cable to All of our success.

I better Get +15 for this post.

And one more thing: Oakland, Hoe. We Raider fans; we don’t cry.

The hard pill to swallow in all of this is that there are other front offices out there that were in a similar cap position and through creative management were able to get themselves under the cap to be able to be players in the market. I never expected us to go out and make a big splash or even compete with some of high spenders or big names out there. We have some obvious needs that have not really been addressed.

Nnamdi leaving was not a shock…as soon as the contract was voided I said my goodbyes. Same with Gallery…when I heard what he wanted I said my goodbyes. Miller was a shock because he seemed close to a deal before and after the lockout but Seattle gave him franchise tag type money for 5 years…I don’t blame him for leaving and I don’t blame Al for passing. Kevin Boss is a nice plan B if we can make it work in a sensible financial manor but as far as I have heard we are not pursuing him. Scaife doesn’t really do it for me unless its really cheap.

Saying our line is worse than last year isn’t stupid…for now all we have to go on is what’s on paper until we see the product on the field but for now…on paper…it does look worse and we haven’t done much to fix it. Hue talks about building a bully…well the guys we have don’t look like a bully to me…they look like they’re going to get bullied. I’m holding out hope that we bring in some camp casualties that make sense and hopefully competition brings out the best in everyone in camp.

I still think the biggest change from last season is the great coaching staff we have put in place…lots of energy and guys getting their hands dirty. I think there is a lot of experience and entheusiasm there.

I’m disappointed we haven’t addressed some of our needs by now and I hope those needs are addressed by the guys we have in camp now if we can’t go out and find some trash and turn it into treasure. I still think we have a great team with a lot of potential and some explosive firepower on both sides of the field.

John Herrera-“You goin shoppin’?”
Al Davis-“Fuck goin shoppin’!”

Something that seems to have gone undiscussed is what happens if we can’t afford to sign him because we are still over the cap. If anyone has some insight into how this conundrum can be solved please step forward.

We did free up some cap room with the Wimberley deal but surely a certain proportion of that has already been spent on our quartet of non-descript new OL guys.

I think the point of dead money is this – how can you sign players on multi-year deals if you know next year your cap room is going to be more restricted than it is now?

With all the borrowings against future years you are just exacerbating the problem. I think this is one of the big reasons the likes of ZM and NA were not offered deals. Even if you could just squeeze them in this year, what happens in 2012?