With the Oakland Raiders finally back in action, I debut my new, weekly postgame feature: Grades and Accolades.
Every game this season will have its share of notable performances and emerging or continuing team trends, and I aim to break them down for fans both casual and hardcore. I invite readers to give me their input over the coming weeks so I can make this feature as appealing and as useful as possible.
Here's my assessment after Friday's 19-16 Oakland win over the Dallas Cowboys at O.Co Coliseum.
Grades
Matt Flynn (QB): B-
With all of the media focus this offseason on who, if anyone, ...
The Oakland Raiders have their first preseason matchup today against the Dallas Cowboys at the Oakland Coliseum. For a team looking towards the future, this game will be the start of what people consider a fierce competition—for the first overall pick in next year’s draft.
While playoff hopes are slim to none, here are three things Raiders fans should pay attention to that will go a long way in determining Oakland’s short- and long-term success.
Quarterbacks
Darren McFadden stated this past Wednesday on NBCN's Pro Football Talk that Matt Flynn will be starting at quarterback. But in the situation the Raiders are in, ...
Though there are still eight weeks of baseball left in the 2013 season, it wouldn't be hyperbolic to say this miniseries between the Oakland Athletics and Cincinnati Reds was extremely important. After all, the A’s entered the two-game midweek matchup carrying something they haven’t had for quite some time: concern. And after losing both games to Cincinnati, that mid-level worry just ramped up a notch, as Oakland now sits alongside the Texas Rangers in first place in the American League West.
Thanks to the series sweep at the hands of the Reds, Oakland has now lost six of its past seven ...
The Oakland Athletics are in a solid spot right now. The major league team is in contention and the farm league has a solid supply of young talent who are either living up to hype or turning heads.
From the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats down to the High-A Beloit Snappers, the A's organization features a wide variety of talent from starting pitchers to positional players. So which A's minor leaguer is performing better than anyone else in the system at his position?
For clarity purposes, this isn't a look at how the top labeled prospect at each position is doing. This is ...
With the start of the 2013 NFL season only weeks away, we're set to evaluate all 32 teams and their chances for reaching MetLife Stadium for Super Bowl XLVIII in February.
Join Bleacher Report's Matt Miller, Josh Zerkle and Aaron Nagler as they break down the major offseason moves, the biggest draft picks and the likely heroes for all 32 NFL teams.
We'll also offer our best-case and worst-case scenarios for each team's season, and offer up our predictions for how far we see each team advancing through the NFL playoffs…if we think they can get there.
Up next: the Oakland Raiders, who ...
The Oakland Raiders are creeping toward Week 1 with Matt Flynn as their starting quarterback. Barring a huge surprise from Terrelle Pryor or Tyler Wilson during the preseason, Flynn will get the first crack at securing the job during the regular season.
It’s an audition of sorts for Flynn because he has just two career starts to his name. With Pryor improving this offseason and the rookie Wilson slowly getting up to speed, the team has other options should Flynn falter.
There are at least 15 different possible outcomes, but at least one of them includes Flynn becoming the long-term answer at ...
The Oakland Raiders are now through almost two weeks of training camp, with their preseason action set to begin Friday.
One of the more exciting things about following along with a given team’s training camp is the position battles that take place throughout.
At the same time, the unavoidable part to that is the players that will lose their respective competitions, and thus roster spots in the process.
With some surprising candidates, here are five Oakland Raiders players in danger of being cut soon.Begin Slideshow
Rumored to make a large move at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, the Oakland A's only made a minor tweak to their roster, adding infielder Alberto Callaspo for Grant Green.
But just because the A's did not make a major move does not mean one is still not possible in August.
Oakland's 2012 season found its final piece when the team acquired shortstop Stephen Drew from the Arizona Diamondbacks on Aug. 20 of last season after the non-waiver trade deadline. Though Drew signed with the Boston Red Sox in the offseason, his acquisition was proof that quality players can still be had in ...
Part of the reason the Oakland Raiders are projected to be one of the worst teams in the NFL in 2013 is because of a shaky quarterback position. The Raiders exchanged the proven Carson Palmer for unproven Matt Flynn during the offseason and Terrelle Pryor is still trying to become an adequate passer to complement his running ability.
With so much unknown at the position, the Raiders used a fourth-round draft pick last April to select Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson to see if they could catch lightning in a bottle. A lot of people liked Wilson’s potential and some even believed ...
The first two weeks of the Oakland Raiders training camp are now in the books, as the first preseason action is right around the corner.
Training camp represents the time of year where starting positions are both won and lost, and we progressively get a better idea of how each team is shaping up for the upcoming season.
The Raiders are a team that many will expect to struggle again in 2013, but as a result, could prove to be that much bigger of a pleasant surprise.
Here are seven things we learned through two weeks of Oakland Raiders training camp.Begin Slideshow