Raiders still can get better despite slow start to Free Agency

The start to free agency has not been a good one for the Oakland Raiders. They did manage to sign two decent players with high reward value if they continue their upward trajectory in Roger Saffold and Austin Howard, it would be much more exciting had they not been paid as if they already had reached their top potential though!

Even with the disappointments of day 1 and now the lack of news so far coming from day 2, there is still a lot of time left for the Raiders to become a better team. As good as Jared Veldheer, Lamarr Houston, and Rashad Jennings have been respectively for the Raiders, they are still replaceable.

Reggie McKenzie has a plan for Oakland even if we don't know what it is as of yet. He has some decent value players coming in for interviews and it is only the tip of the ice berg. There are still a lot of very good players left on the board, although more of them are signing everyday.

Possible targets that have now officially signed with other teams are:

• WR Golden Tate (DET),
• CB's Aquib Talib (DEN) and Alteraun Verner (TB),
• S's Donte Whitner (CLE) TJ Ward (DEN) Malcolm Jenkins (PHI) and Jarius Byrd (NO)
• DE Demarcus Ware (DEN).

The most annoying part of the list of potential targets that have signed is how many of them signed with the divisional rival Denver Broncos but I guess the rich really do just keep getting richer.

There are some really solid players still available anyway so hopefully when it is all said and done these first two days will just be a bad start to a good off-season. Our sorrow tunes will change quickly if the Raiders were able to sign the likes of Lamarr Woodley and Justin Tuck who are visiting, or Henry Milton and BJ Raji who the Raiders have shown interest in.

It is hard to remain patient while so many players are signing with other teams, but in the end we have no say about it anyway. It will be interesting to see how all of this finishes, and with some luck we will still feel a lot better about the Raiders going into the draft. Even if the Raiders FA time is not up to par, they still have a really strong draft class coming to choose from in May.