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Archive for April, 2013
The Oakland Raiders have a lot of needs and there’s no sense sugarcoating it. A lack of top talent has led many to refer to Oakland’s roster as the worst in football. Although the Raiders are at least a couple years away from being contenders, it’s too early to judge the 2013 roster. After all, you wouldn’t judge a house under construction that doesn’t have running water, electricity or a roof. Essential pieces of the puzzle are missing in Oakland and the Raiders haven’t had the draft picks or the salary cap space to get them. The Raiders signing of ...
The Oakland Raiders had many needs to fill on the roster coming into the 2013 offseason.  Most of the needs were on the defensive side of the ball, but the offense wasn't looking too good either.Early in the offseason with the release of Rolando McClain expected, the Raiders would need a new middle linebacker so Manti Te'o was an option to draft.Cornerback was also a need with Phillip Adams as the team's best CB on the roster, so there was talk of drafting Dee Milliner.  The pass-rush also was in dire need of help as the Raiders defense had only ...
The second series of the Oakland Athletics' season came and went this past weekend. The A’s introduced themselves to the Houston Astros—the new members of the American League West—or rather, got reacquainted with one another.This trio of games was a reunion for several members of these two organizations. The A’s and Astros were involved in a five-player deal this past offseason, with Oakland sending three players, Chris Carter, Brad Peacock and Max Stassi to Houston in exchange for Jed Lowrie and Fernando Rodriguez. Additionally, Houston obtained Travis Blackley from the A’s in a trade on April 4.All in all, the series ...
The Oakland Raiders are a team that could use a great draft to rebuild a talent-depleted roster. Unfortunately, the Raiders don’t have a second- or fifth-round pick. General manager Reggie McKenzie has the third-overall pick, but in a draft without clearly defined top options. The 2013 NFL draft is the most important draft of the post-Davis era in Oakland, which makes the situation less than ideal. McKenzie has blown up the roster, but that was the easy part of the process. Adding talent through the draft to bring the Raiders back to prominence is now McKenzie’s goal. Raiders fans will ...
Oakland Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie’s effort to rebuild this franchise has not yet shown up in the win column, but at this point it doesn’t exactly have to. If this team is going to get back to being the perennial contender that its dedicated fans want it to be, the rebuild has to be done the right way, and that methodical approach takes time.  Of course, as with any situation, fans want to see improvement. Unfortunately, Raiders fans saw the opposite in McKenzie’s first full season at the helm, but placing the blame on him is beyond misguided this early ...
The Oakland Raiders are a rebuilding team, and that is a bitter pill to swallow after two consecutive 8-8 seasons, including the 2011 season in which the Raiders would have been a playoff team with a win in Week 17.Following that 2011 season came the 4-12 year in 2012, and the rebuilding process was vastly accelerated by GM Reggie McKenzie in Oakland.With recent reports coming from John Clayton of ESPN that the Oakland Raiders will have $69 million in salary-cap space in 2014, one can't help but think the Raiders will own, or maybe even dictate, free agency next year.Is it ...
Josh Reddick won a Gold Glove in 2012 for his aggressive style of play.  It is that same aggressive style of play that almost cost him some playing time in his defense of that Gold Glove in 2013.In the fifth inning of Sunday's victory over the Houston Astros to finish the series sweep, Reddick ran into the right field wall in pursuit of a foul ball.  After spending some time on the ground, Reddick was taken out of the game and had X-rays taken.Those X-rays have come back to show a sprained wrist, according to Casey Pratt of CSN Bay ...
According to ESPN's Bill Williamson, the long-awaited release of Rolando McClain has been executed by the Oakland Raiders.The Raiders were expected to cut ties with several players this offseason, but McClain's release was the most expected.  It became clear that McClain's days in silver and black were numbered when he had an argument with head coach Dennis Allen during a midseason practice that resulted in a two-game suspension for conduct detrimental to the team.  McClain's playing time was already dipping in favor of rookie Miles Burris in the nickel package because of McClain's weaknesses in pass coverage.  After the suspension, ...
The largest roster purge in franchise history was completed on Friday when The Oakland Raiders finally waived disgruntled linebacker Rolando McClain. The move was expected since early in the season when McClain was demoted to a two-down linebacker. After McClain was suspended for two games for conduct detrimental to the team last December for getting into an argument with head coach Dennis Allen, his release was almost assured. The Raiders waited to release McClain presumably because of salary cap implications. General manager Reggie McKenzie has effectively blown up the entire roster in Oakland in one offseason. Only 10 of 22 ...
When Reggie McKenzie took over as general manager of the Oakland Raiders in January of 2012, he inherited one hot mess of a roster, a team overflowing with bloated contracts and blown draft choices.Since then, McKenzie has taken a chainsaw to the team, and while the improvements he's made may not appear to even be improvements at first glance, that doesn't change the fact that he has the Raiders very much headed in the right direction where the franchise's long-term future is concerned.The biggest problem that McKenzie has faced, of course, is the steaming pile of‚ um, talent that was ...