Wholesale Changes For Raiders

 Posted by at 12:20 AM  No Responses »
Mar 092010
 

What a week and it is just Monday!

Javon Walker, Greg Ellis, Cornell Green are out, is Anthony Becht in?

Walker, the biggest bust in free agency history is finally gone. He is making money this season, on or off the roster. So this is a statement that, Walker wasn’t even worthy of being the 53rd man on a bad team.

Green signed for way too much money in Buffalo, but the guess is that the Bills will be a run heavy team next season, and that is one area where Green really does well. No one will miss him in Silver and Black. No wonder the Raiders re-signed Khalif Barnes. The Raiders need the bodies, at least.

Cutting DE Greg Ellis is the most surprising, but the according to Michael Lombardi, his contract became fully guaranteed if he was on the roster next week.

Considering the rise of Matt Shaughnessey and Ellis’ injury history may be the likely reason he is gone. The other, is that the Raiders may be targeting one of the premium pass rushing Defensive Ends in April’s draft. Jason Pierre-Paul is an Al Davis type of player, but there are several of them that are worthy of a top 10 pick.

Anthony Becht was visiting the Raiders today and he is a perfect complement to Zach Miller. A good blocker that can catch a pass when needed. He is a better version on Tony Stewart. Brandon Myers showed potential, but is a worse version of Zach Miller.

For once, the Raiders (outside of resigning Barnes), are seemingly making all the right moves. They didn’t bite on any overpriced free agents, they are cutting overpriced, underproductive, over-age players and while one can question the restricted free agent tenders Al Davis slapped on Morrison and Routt, those are really non-moves.

No one has signed Morrison and Routt’s tender while insane, really has very little impact besides ensuring Routt is a Raider in 2010 with a nice contract.

Morrison’s tag was likely the Raiders daring a team to take him and hoping to receive a free 3rd round selection in a very deep draft. It remains to be seem if that will happen. The Raiders could always threaten to match a team’s offer and demand a player or more picks as well.

Morrison was very poor against play action and against the pass in general last season. He also was less than spectacular against the run if you take out the Giants game in which they basically ran the ball after the 1st quarter and the Chiefs game in which they were minus Dwayne Bowe.

His perceived value is much higher than his actual value. Raiders were smart enough to take advantage of that.

While I love Captain Kirk, as he grew up a Raider fan, you must use your head and not your heart to win in the NFL.

Sedrick Ellis vs. Glenn Dorsey

 Posted by at 12:44 AM  No Responses »
Feb 192008
 

I am thinking more and more about Sedrick Ellis. I am thinking he might be the perfect fit for our team. He is the perfect 3-technique DT. Sapp was our 3-technique. Dorsey may be an even better fit because he plays the 3-technique and is better at beating a double team. He also has size on Ellis and should be stouter against the run.

In our defense, a 3- technique is important because we rush with just four lineman a lot.

So we really need to a get a good 3-technique.

Dorsey is stouter against the run and can eat up more blocker in the run game than can Ellis, which is why I still have Dorsey as my #1.

I also think it is possible Kelly could play the 3-technique. When he played DT before he wasn’t playing the 3-technique Sapp was. So maybe he could be a cheaper solution to our problem.

Still if you have a chance to get a good DT like Dorsey or Ellis, it is hard to pass on them.

Ellis didn’t play the 3-technique at USC, so he may need adjustment time in the NFL. Dorsey did play the 3 gap and also against tougher competition (SEC) than Ellis (PAC-10).

I really like both guys, but Dorsey is the better fit for our team. A team looking for a pass rush that is stout against the run could really use Ellis to the best of his abilities.

Sedrick Ellis

 Posted by at 11:43 PM  No Responses »
Feb 172008
 

I’ve gotten a negative response from many people about saying we could get him at #8. Right now he is projected to us or to fall to #6 to NYJ. Before the Senior Bowl practices he was projected by many to go #9 to Cincy.

Because we have yet to see him at the combine and/or his pro day, I think we would be jumping the gun to put him as not having a chance to fall to #8.

A good example of how things change would be Alan Branch last season projected in the top 15 by just about every major draft prognosticator, who fell into the second round.

I would rather hold off judgment about where guys may or may not go in the draft. If Mike Mayock is correct, we might see McFadden fall to the late first round. In past years plenty of guys have fallen in the draft.

I would say Ellis has the chance to go the other way and pass up Dorsey as well. Mayock seems to think Ellis is better right now based on the Senior Bowl.

Kentwan Balmer is also a stud and maybe he can help if we decide to trade down and we miss Ellis. Many people would be displeased, but Balmer looked studly at the Senior Bowl until his injury.

Fargas Re-signs

 Posted by at 2:02 AM  No Responses »
Feb 142008
 

Ouch. This hurts for McFadden supporters. The terms of the deal will be interesting. One would guess this makes McFadden a lot less of an option, but never rule anything out with Al Davis.

Bump up the likelihood the Raiders are going for a defensive lineman. Dorsey, Ellis, Long all now become tops on our list (or so it would appear).

McFadden’s receiving ability may still make him a darkhorse, especially if Dorsey and Chris Long are off the board.

If ever there was a year to move down, this would be it. My guess is we could move down to 8 and still get Ellis. That would mean a #22 pick or so if we are going down from #3 or a #50 pick if we are moving down from #4.

Then we could possibly acquire a SS and WR.