Sports Illustrated lists Raiders atop teams they think got worse this offseason

Raiders fans are feeling pretty confident their team got considerably better this offseason. But amid that excitement there are those who disagree. And in at least one instance, that of MMQB’s Connor Orr, he thinks they got worse. Here is his reasoning.

Like we discussed when I wrote about the Dolphins in last week’s roundtable, I think there’s a difference between improvement and becoming healthier. On paper, the Raiders may be the most improved team in football (hello, Antonio Brown), but is this a healthier organization than it was a year ago? Mercurial free agent acquisitions—especially the likes of Richie Incognito—may not be a permanent fixture in Oakland’s locker room, but send a message to the young core of offensive linemen building around him. The whole point of signing Jon Gruden to a 10-year deal was that this was deemed to be a long-term rebuild, and that it would take so much time that he’d need the security to tear the roster down. What, then, do we call this entree of microwave popcorn Oakland is serving in 2019? Why not develop young players and then add when the team is on the cusp of competing like other clubs who have gone through a similar process?

The article from which this is pulled is all about teams that SI thinks got worse this offseason, so Oakland isn’t sitting alone on the list. Though they are the first team listed.

Other teams on the list include the Chiefs, Patriots, Texans, Buccaneers, Rams, Bears, and Steelers.

This comes on the heels of an ESPN piece which graded the Raiders offseason a C+ which put them at or just below the middle of the road along with the rest of the league.