In a move that many felt must happen, the Raiders traded Randy Moss to New England for a fourth round pick on that second day of the draft.
In moving Moss, the evolution of the Raiders into "Lane's World" was nearly complete. There was still that meddlesome, backstabbing personnel executive, Mike Lombardi, to deal with, but, the player who the team leaned on to ignite the offense that turned into a sour grape was being shipped out the door and one of "Son of Monte's" projects, Mike Williams, was on his way in.
I'll never forget the day that Randy Moss showed up to Raider camp. It was a sign of ominous things to come when he pulled up in a Viking themed SUV. This didn't seem like something that someone who was here to lead us back to the playoffs was supposed to do, and it spoke volumes to me about where his heart and head were. They were still in Minnesota.
Sure, he joked that he would "probably give it away to a fan during the season", but the damage was done. I mean, what Raider fan would want a Viking SUV? Can you imagine what purpose that would serve? I can see the Black Hole doing something with it, but I'm sure it wouldn't be pretty.
His stay with us started with controversy, but I have to also give him his respect for playing through injuries in his first season in silver and black.
After not getting thrown the deep ball often enough for my taste in the first four games and the team sinking to 1-3 before the break they finally threw up an ally oop to Moss over the middle against the Chargers.
The problem was that the pass floated in the air and the defensive backs for San Diego high lowed and crushed Moss. He would play through it but was never the same again. That includes 2006.
I sat there and saw the play develop and I felt that the season was ending right there. And it did.
After two quick wins against Buffalo and Tennessee, the Raiders went into the tank. They won only one more game. That was Norv Turner's revenge game when the Raiders beat the Redskins.
Moss ended the season only missing one start and grabbing 60 catches for 1,005 yards and 8 Touch Downs. It was in no way his best season, but considering his injuries it was good enough to think that a healthy Moss in 2006 could still perform at a high level.
A look at his Wiki Page will tell you all you need to know about Randy Moss's 2006 season.
Here is a couple of excerpts:
"During the course of the Raiders' nine game losing streak to end the 2006 season, Tyler Brayton and several other Raiders, including Warren Sapp, criticized the lackadaisical effort of Moss"
"On May 15, 2007, more than two weeks after the trade to New England, Moss was called out by his former Raiders coaches. His former offensive coordinator, Tom Walsh, said of Moss, "Randy Moss is a player whose skills are diminishing, and he's in denial of those eroding skills...Randy was a great receiver, but he lacked the work ethic and the desire to cultivate any skills that would compensate for what he was losing physically later in his career." [1] Walsh also reported that Moss told him, "'I'm too old to practice on Wednesday and Thursday, but I'm not too old to play on Sunday.'"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Moss
His under performance in 2006 was the worst tank job that I have ever seen at the professional level. He constantly cut routes short and when he had chances to pick up BIG first downs he was more likely to drop the ball than secure it.
His attitude was the definition of "cancer" and it had to be cut out before this team could ever re-invent itself.
With our disease now someone else's problem and some more cap room the Raiders are still able to be players in the free agent market and FINALLY Jerry Porter can be the #1 target.
The weekend that the Raiders said no mas to Moss will go down as the weekend that our team took shape for the next 10 years.
The rest of the picks seemed to address our needs on special teams and depth.
One more that I will touch on because he will always be linked to the Randy moss trade is John Bowie.
In UN-Raider fashion we waited until our second pick of the fourth round, the pick we received for Randy Moss, to draft a fast defensive back. The DB was John "David" Bowie, CB, Cincinnati.
He was injured a lot in college but he is a speed burner who can help on run defense and is a good fit for punt and kick coverage.
This completes the draft portion of the Lane's World evolution.
Next up is the firing of Mike Lombardi and the pace of camps.