The Oakland Raiders will certainly look to add talent in both free agency and the 2013 NFL draft, but first comes re-signing some free agents of their own. Of course, after a 4-12 season changes need to be made, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t some valuable talent already in place on the roster. The Raiders have several key free agents they will most likely try to re-sign before they hit the open market on March 12. The players that top the list are all on the defensive side of the ball. Here are the top five players the ...
For a team with as many needs as the Oakland Raiders, moving down in the NFL draft isn’t a bad idea. There is one problem: the Raiders will have to find a willing trade partner. Since there are no consensus top picks this year, trading down could be even more difficult than normal. It can be challenging to move down when you have one of the top picks in the draft. The St. Louis Rams were able to acquire three first-round draft picks and one second-round draft pick for the No.2 overall pick in 2012, but that was specifically for ...
With free agency on the horizon and a new league year set to begin in just about a month, it is time for every NFL franchise to determine who is worth what they are getting payed.Some players (pending free agents) will get payed more, some players will be asked to take a pay cut and others are just released to free up salary cap space.The Oakland Raiders are no different, and thanks to Paul Gutierrez of CSN California, we have access to the Raiders' 10 highest-paid players for 2013. Gutierrez notes that 17 percent of the roster accounts for 71 percent ...
The Oakland Raiders have been struggling to sell out the O.co Coliseum for years. The result has been a lot of blackouts and a seemingly empty stadium even when the Raiders manage to discount tickets enough to get the game on local television. Changes appear to be afoot, as the Raiders made some tweaks to their seating chart on the team’s official website. The upper deck section known as “Mount Davis” has been removed as well as eight sections of the regular upper deck. Ticket prices have also been slashed. The adjustment to the seating capacity was overdue, as they ...
When the vision that Reggie McKenzie and Dennis Allen have for the Oakland Raiders franchise begins to take shape, the hope is that they can look back upon the 2012 rookie class as a key building block. Fortunately for the Raiders, some of these players were able to make an impact right away, proving to be more than worthy of where they were drafted, or picked up afterwards in one case. While some of the other players did not see the field a great deal this past season, you can bet that they will be in the thick of the ...
The Oakland Raiders were filled with problems in 2012, but the inability to get everyone on the same page hurt them drastically as the team struggled to find any sort of identity.Now that the Reggie McKenzie-Dennis Allen era is one year in the books, the organization has some stability and they've taken steps in the right direction after a disappointing first season.This Raiders team needs to find an identity, and it all starts with the players who have proven to be successful in the past.Philip Wheeler and Brandon Myers were Oakland's two most consistent players last season, but their free-agent ...
Say what you will, but Billy Beane is not averse to making decisive moves. Adding guys like John Jaso and Jed Lowrie may not be as sexy as Josh Hamilton, but the Oakland Athletics have further addressed offseason deficiencies with their moves. With Lowrie in the fold, the A's now have someone with real Major League pop to fill in voids all over the infield. That means players like Eric Sogard and Adam "Skolnick" Rosales have less at-bats in meaningful situations. I like them both, but neither should be hitting more than 70 times a year in the big leagues. The reality ...
Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane swung what he termed to be his final deal of the offseason on Monday by acquiring infielder Jed Lowrie and reliever Fernando Rodriguez from the Houston Astros for first baseman/designated hitter Chris Carter, pitching prospect Brad Peacock and catching prospect Max Stassi.Lowrie is the key to the deal for the A's. He provides them with a hedge against Beane's bets at all four infield positions—particularly at shortstop. Beane summed up his interest in Lowrie by telling the media,Jed is a guy we've had a lot of interest in going back to his Boston ...
The Oakland Raiders weren’t good in 2012, and they probably aren’t going to be much better in 2013. Thanks to a roster that general manager Reggie McKenzie had to break down before he could rebuild it, the Raiders have one of the worst rosters in the league. In many ways, the Raiders are facing one of the most important offseasons in their history. The Raiders have a new front office that McKenzie has spent the last year renovating and a first-round pick. The Raiders aren’t likely going to be contenders until 2014 at the earliest, but there’s always a chance ...
With the Super Bowl now in the books, the 2012 NFL season is officially over, and now all 32 organizations will begin evaluating their teams as we get closer to the start of free agency. Sometimes the most important part of free agency is keeping your own players at any cost and preventing them from hitting the open market.One of the tools that a team has is the franchise tag, which basically forces a player to stay with that team for another year barring a trade.The tag can be used as an extension to get a long-term contract signed with ...