You never expect much out of a player drafted in the tenth round, but the Raiders found a true gem when they took running back Frank Hawkins with the 256th overall pick back in 1981.
Playing at the University of Nevada, "the Hawk" amassed 5,333 yards in his four years there. After his career ended with the Wolfpack, his jersey was retired and he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1997.
Oakland's 1981 draft was largely forgettable, aside from taking Hall of Famer Howie Long. Oakland even took another back, Auburn's Chester Willis, the round after Hawkins.
During his ...
This off-season featured the Raiders releasing fan favorite and former 1000 yard rusher Justin Fargas. Fargas earned the job with hard nosed running despite a lack of size and breakaway speed. In the past three years Fargas has accumulated over 2300 yards on the ground despite the Raiders running back by committee approach.
Where will the nearly 800 additional rushing yards come from this season?
The logical answer is that Michael Bush and Darren McFadden will split those yards right down the middle. McFadden was the apple of Al Davis' ...
Now is the time for all good Raiders to step forward and take what they can.
For the Raider Nation, over the next few weeks, free agents and draft picks will work to secure a future with the Oakland Raiders or hope to attract the attention of another club, hoping to stay employed within the National Football league.
As it stands, the camps will test, train, and educate, but they will also discover weaknesses, weed out imperfections and hopefully deliver the best possible product to the fans, for the first week of football against the Titans.
Within this slideshow, you will see 10 ...
The Raiders are only three days into to camp and have yet go live in practice. Yet they can already see that Lamarr Houston came to bring the pain.
He has come to Raider Nation fully equipped with a chip on his shoulder. He got into a scuffle with Langston Walker and Rock Cartright during his first minicamp practice.
Houston has wasted little time making enemies with other offensive teamates since the Raiders started training camp. He got into a scuffle with Robert Gallery Thursday.
Houston entered the draft as a defensive tackle. Houston is a typical Al Davis physical freak that fell to the Raiders in the second round.
This is despite having better production ...
The biggest addition by subtraction was the release of JaMarcus Russell. Russell was a cancer to this team. Looking back to the Jets game, it was one of the worst performances by a quarterback I've ever had the misfortune to watch. But enough about Russell.
Scouting Report
This is Jason Campbell's team. If you look at his numbers last season, they were actually fairly solid. The former first-round pick threw for 3,500 passing yards and 20 touchdowns.
Trust me, his numbers could have been much better. He was destroyed all season by that Washington offensive line. While I was watching tape of ...
There is a motto: Don't mess with Texas.
Apply that to the Oakland Raiders and listen real good: Don't mess with the Oakland Raiders!
Apparently, a Charger fan is posting on the B/R Oakland Raiders' page, and he is trying to shake the confidence of those who do not take the time to look at facts, or to build a math model to describe or forecast what is, what is possible, and what is probable.
Consider this approach to gain some insight:
I will define the following mapping. Let "up" be 3 units and "down" be -2. If there is no change, then use ...
The style and tone of a comment made about the Oakland Raiders by a sports radio personality named Chris Townsend agitated me and made my temper flare up on Friday, July 30.
I started listening to Sports Radio 610 while firing up my new smoker to practice preparing several meats. In my own way, I have my tailgate parties at home in my backyard.
Actually, I just slowed down and discovered the sports radio talk show. But, near the end of one portion of the show, Townsend started talking about quarterbacks, and what happens when a team has a bad quarterback.
Then, he used the Oakland Raiders ...
It's a little too soon to think about the offseason, but with the injuries mounting for the Oakland A's it's only a matter of time before the rosters expand. Then the A's will be looking at what the roster maybe like for the 2011 season.
With that being said what players are likely to stay? What players are likely going to be gone? I'll start with the infielders and finish with the relief pitchers.
The catcher position is the most stable position for the A's with Kurt Suzuki signing a four year contract extension. Landon Powell is a solid backup behind Suzuki, ...
After losing two of three in Arlington to the division-leading Rangers, the Oakland Athletics need to shift their focus from winning the American League West to having their first winning season since 2006.
The Oakland Athletics went into Texas playing their best baseball of the season. They had won nine of the past 11 games, four straight series, and were seven and a half games out of first.
The Texas series was huge for the Athletics, and they were unable to come away with the series win. Although they only fell to eight and a half games back, ...
Let's just say that I got lucky and discovered an article on women in the NFL. Once again, the uniqueness and even greatness of the Oakland Raiders is obvious. The Oakland Raiders' franchise is led, in part, by a woman who is smart and who worked her way up the ranks in the NFL.
Of course, someone had to hire her. Someone had to have a vision and foresight. Guess who that visionary is? Al Davis, of course.
Now, if the NFL would come up with an accolade to celebrate the historical move of placing Amy Trask as an NFL CEO, then ...