The Official Oakland Raiders Offseason thread
- Thread starter 2Quik4UHoes
- Start date
Trash ass WRs
Imgone8itch
All Star
The let down from this season is so painful.
Fires up mock drafts...
Yeah bruh im done with carr few weeks ago...
Yeah bruh im done with carr few weeks ago...
DJ Paul's Arm
Veteran
Florio thinks Luck is going to be in Vegas too. God I hope so. I would love to root for the raiders. As a child I stanned Jay Schroeder 
I can’t believe Moss actually got a 1000 receiving yards with us
Imgone8itch
All Star
Long but good read
I indicated I learned quite a bit talking with fans in Oakland and watching the game over the weekend. Here are a few tidbits from what I learned. I'm going to be very careful to NOT reveal the identify of a few key people I talked with so that it won't get back to them.
-I talked with literally dozens of fans from all over the country -- from local to Los Angeles to the east coast, Texas and even Canada. One of the questions I asked was what they thought of Derek Carr. To a person, the fans "love" Derek Carr the person, but don't believe he is the answer at QB. Most believe this will be his last season with the Raiders. The general consensus is that he will be replaced with a veteran FA, while they draft the QB of the future and develop him. A few think he might last one more season, because of cap reasons. I didn't talk with a single fan who has confidence in Carr as the Raiders' QB and believe he is the long-term answer. Of course, I didn't talk to every fan in Oakland, though.
-While at Ricky's Saturday night, I met a lot of fans, including a couple who seem to be really "connected" to the Raiders and the City of Oakland. I sat at a table beside a Raider great, who was accompanied by a couple of very connected fans as well as a close friend and college room mate of another Raider. One of these fans showed me their phone and sure enough there was an "Art Shell" in the contacts. This person told me a few of the people they know very well. (You would know their names and faces immediately.) These people are what I would call Raider royalty. Sure enough when I got to the game this fan was walking a well-known Raider into the stadium with fans surrounding him and news media all around him. Yes, these fans are VERY connected.
-I asked one of these very connected fans what they thought about Derek Carr. This is what I was told as close to a direct quote as possible. "I love Derek Carr. He's a great man, a good father and husband. I've been to his church and heard him preach. He is great at this. I'm actually related to the Carr family. He WILL NOT be the Raiders quarterback next year." The person also told me that the high-level people they know are all down on Carr as the Raiders' QB and that they are in Mark Davis' ear.
-I also talked with a fan who said he worked closely with the Oakland City Council and knows them very well. He told me the city did zero (made a zero with his fingers for emphasis) to keep the Raiders. They want to use the property to build luxury condominiums for the tax revenue. They think it would be a prime location with the BART station right there. He seemed to indicate that the City has little desire to keep the pro teams there and views the site as prime property for real estate development. Based on that, I could see Oakland not having a single professional team in a few years.
-I also heard from a fan that the Raiders have an option to play two preseason games next year in the Coliseum, but that this probably will not be necessary with the new Vegas stadium currently on time.
-While at breakfast one morning, I had breakfast with family members of one of the current Raider rookies. I won't tell you which one it was, but I will tell you that it wasn't a low draft pick, not at all. I talked with one of the family members pretty extensively and even have his phone number to keep in contact. He also does not believe Carr is the long-term answer for the Raiders.
-If fans are losing faith in Carr, family members of players are losing faith in Carr, you have to believe teammates are also losing faith in him. They are closer to this than we are and see it every day. You have to know there's a lot of talk outside the locker room. This team is snakebit right now, and I believe part of it is lack of faith in Carr. He doesn't win the big games. He doesn't see wide open receivers. He plays poorly in big games. Add all of this together and you have to believe Carr is on his way out.
-One of the coolest parts of the night was seeing two of Kenny Stabler's grandsons meet Kenny's right tackle John Vella. At the game, I talked with one of them while he was walking down onto the field and related a story about when I interviewed their grandfather years ago about the Sea of Hands game. When I told him the story, he had this huge smile on his face. He had never heard the story. On the way back up through after the national anthem, he said he enjoyed talking with me. Nice young man.
-This talk about our receivers not getting separation is pure BS. They aren't the greatest in the world, but they are sufficient. I watched closely on a few plays to see how much separation they had. Carr had a receiver with half a yard separation on a deep pattern on one play and time to throw. Carr looked but wouldn't throw the ball. On another play in the first half, I watched as Tyrell Williams ran a slant across the middle about 12 yards deep. Once again, Carr had time to throw, but instead of throwing to Williams, he checked down to a back. That side of the field was open for a long gain with proper ball placement. Williams would have caught the ball and turned up the sideline for at least 25-40 yards. Big play missed once again. I asked a friend I met from Washington state who sat in the Black Hole if he saw open receivers and he said he had. A former high school player himself, he said he saw a number of plays in which two or three receivers were getting separation, Carr had time to throw but wouldn't throw the ball. He said he could see the play developing from behind the offense and was thinking, "Throw the ball! Throw the ball." For whatever reason, Carr is reluctant to take a chance -- any chance -- anymore.
-Gardner Minshew had more pocket presence than Carr, which should tell us a lot. He moved around in the pocket, continually bought more time and was a threat to run. I actually think Minshew outplayed Carr by a wide margin. Minshew was a 6th round pick.
-Carr showed a little more pocket presence than usual. He made a smart play on the run for the first down at the end, but a bonehead call by the refs killed us. I believe we would have picked up another first down on the ground by running three straight plays and running out some clock and having the Jags expend their remaining timeouts. Getting 10 yards from Jacobs in three runs is a lot easier than trying to get 15. Instead, we faced a first and 15, which made running more difficult and made us have to throw the ball.
-The offense has no rhythm at all. Carr is the conductor. The fan from Washington and I were joking after the game that Gruden must tell his players that he needs them to play the full 40 minutes (instead of 60), and his players listen to Gruden, not playing 20 minutes of the game. For whatever reason, it's like the offense takes off the entire third quarter of every game. Carr does not help to create a rhythm and he ignores wide receivers for long stretches of the game then we're amazed that they drop a pass at a key moment of the game? Yes, they're professionals, but they're also athletes who need to be fed the ball some to get into a rhythm. I'd hate to be a WR with Carr as my QB. I'd run my routes all day long, get open several times and rarely see the ball. Now I see why Amari Cooper has been doing so well in Dallas.
-How the hell do you only have a 16-3 lead at the half, when you have what 16 first downs to the other team's 2? Seriously. When the third quarter started and we did nothing, I knew we were going to let the other team back in the game once again. Sadly, it happened. Too many three and outs on offense, too many missed tackles and blown assignments on defense and those missed field goals killed us.
-The stadium is a mess. It is literally crumbling around fans. One fan told me the bathrooms flooded at a game against KC a year or so ago and the urinals were so low and water was running into so he knew he was literally standing in his own piss as he pissed in the urinal.
-The pre-game itself was something to see. Marcus Allen was there. Tom Flores was there. MC Hammer performed. Our sideline was completely filled with former players, family members, dignitaries. It was like a huge Raider reunion. Charles Woodson lit the torch. Tim Brown was on the field. Lincoln Kennedy recited the Autumn wind, Mr. Raider Jim Otto ended it. On the way out of the stadium I saw Lincoln Kennedy. I wish I had asked him to sign my hat with something like, "Last Raiders home game - 12/15/19 - Lincoln Kennedy." I'm pretty sure he would have done this, as he signed stuff for others.
I indicated I learned quite a bit talking with fans in Oakland and watching the game over the weekend. Here are a few tidbits from what I learned. I'm going to be very careful to NOT reveal the identify of a few key people I talked with so that it won't get back to them.
-I talked with literally dozens of fans from all over the country -- from local to Los Angeles to the east coast, Texas and even Canada. One of the questions I asked was what they thought of Derek Carr. To a person, the fans "love" Derek Carr the person, but don't believe he is the answer at QB. Most believe this will be his last season with the Raiders. The general consensus is that he will be replaced with a veteran FA, while they draft the QB of the future and develop him. A few think he might last one more season, because of cap reasons. I didn't talk with a single fan who has confidence in Carr as the Raiders' QB and believe he is the long-term answer. Of course, I didn't talk to every fan in Oakland, though.
-While at Ricky's Saturday night, I met a lot of fans, including a couple who seem to be really "connected" to the Raiders and the City of Oakland. I sat at a table beside a Raider great, who was accompanied by a couple of very connected fans as well as a close friend and college room mate of another Raider. One of these fans showed me their phone and sure enough there was an "Art Shell" in the contacts. This person told me a few of the people they know very well. (You would know their names and faces immediately.) These people are what I would call Raider royalty. Sure enough when I got to the game this fan was walking a well-known Raider into the stadium with fans surrounding him and news media all around him. Yes, these fans are VERY connected.
-I asked one of these very connected fans what they thought about Derek Carr. This is what I was told as close to a direct quote as possible. "I love Derek Carr. He's a great man, a good father and husband. I've been to his church and heard him preach. He is great at this. I'm actually related to the Carr family. He WILL NOT be the Raiders quarterback next year." The person also told me that the high-level people they know are all down on Carr as the Raiders' QB and that they are in Mark Davis' ear.
-I also talked with a fan who said he worked closely with the Oakland City Council and knows them very well. He told me the city did zero (made a zero with his fingers for emphasis) to keep the Raiders. They want to use the property to build luxury condominiums for the tax revenue. They think it would be a prime location with the BART station right there. He seemed to indicate that the City has little desire to keep the pro teams there and views the site as prime property for real estate development. Based on that, I could see Oakland not having a single professional team in a few years.
-I also heard from a fan that the Raiders have an option to play two preseason games next year in the Coliseum, but that this probably will not be necessary with the new Vegas stadium currently on time.
-While at breakfast one morning, I had breakfast with family members of one of the current Raider rookies. I won't tell you which one it was, but I will tell you that it wasn't a low draft pick, not at all. I talked with one of the family members pretty extensively and even have his phone number to keep in contact. He also does not believe Carr is the long-term answer for the Raiders.
-If fans are losing faith in Carr, family members of players are losing faith in Carr, you have to believe teammates are also losing faith in him. They are closer to this than we are and see it every day. You have to know there's a lot of talk outside the locker room. This team is snakebit right now, and I believe part of it is lack of faith in Carr. He doesn't win the big games. He doesn't see wide open receivers. He plays poorly in big games. Add all of this together and you have to believe Carr is on his way out.
-One of the coolest parts of the night was seeing two of Kenny Stabler's grandsons meet Kenny's right tackle John Vella. At the game, I talked with one of them while he was walking down onto the field and related a story about when I interviewed their grandfather years ago about the Sea of Hands game. When I told him the story, he had this huge smile on his face. He had never heard the story. On the way back up through after the national anthem, he said he enjoyed talking with me. Nice young man.
-This talk about our receivers not getting separation is pure BS. They aren't the greatest in the world, but they are sufficient. I watched closely on a few plays to see how much separation they had. Carr had a receiver with half a yard separation on a deep pattern on one play and time to throw. Carr looked but wouldn't throw the ball. On another play in the first half, I watched as Tyrell Williams ran a slant across the middle about 12 yards deep. Once again, Carr had time to throw, but instead of throwing to Williams, he checked down to a back. That side of the field was open for a long gain with proper ball placement. Williams would have caught the ball and turned up the sideline for at least 25-40 yards. Big play missed once again. I asked a friend I met from Washington state who sat in the Black Hole if he saw open receivers and he said he had. A former high school player himself, he said he saw a number of plays in which two or three receivers were getting separation, Carr had time to throw but wouldn't throw the ball. He said he could see the play developing from behind the offense and was thinking, "Throw the ball! Throw the ball." For whatever reason, Carr is reluctant to take a chance -- any chance -- anymore.
-Gardner Minshew had more pocket presence than Carr, which should tell us a lot. He moved around in the pocket, continually bought more time and was a threat to run. I actually think Minshew outplayed Carr by a wide margin. Minshew was a 6th round pick.
-Carr showed a little more pocket presence than usual. He made a smart play on the run for the first down at the end, but a bonehead call by the refs killed us. I believe we would have picked up another first down on the ground by running three straight plays and running out some clock and having the Jags expend their remaining timeouts. Getting 10 yards from Jacobs in three runs is a lot easier than trying to get 15. Instead, we faced a first and 15, which made running more difficult and made us have to throw the ball.
-The offense has no rhythm at all. Carr is the conductor. The fan from Washington and I were joking after the game that Gruden must tell his players that he needs them to play the full 40 minutes (instead of 60), and his players listen to Gruden, not playing 20 minutes of the game. For whatever reason, it's like the offense takes off the entire third quarter of every game. Carr does not help to create a rhythm and he ignores wide receivers for long stretches of the game then we're amazed that they drop a pass at a key moment of the game? Yes, they're professionals, but they're also athletes who need to be fed the ball some to get into a rhythm. I'd hate to be a WR with Carr as my QB. I'd run my routes all day long, get open several times and rarely see the ball. Now I see why Amari Cooper has been doing so well in Dallas.
-How the hell do you only have a 16-3 lead at the half, when you have what 16 first downs to the other team's 2? Seriously. When the third quarter started and we did nothing, I knew we were going to let the other team back in the game once again. Sadly, it happened. Too many three and outs on offense, too many missed tackles and blown assignments on defense and those missed field goals killed us.
-The stadium is a mess. It is literally crumbling around fans. One fan told me the bathrooms flooded at a game against KC a year or so ago and the urinals were so low and water was running into so he knew he was literally standing in his own piss as he pissed in the urinal.
-The pre-game itself was something to see. Marcus Allen was there. Tom Flores was there. MC Hammer performed. Our sideline was completely filled with former players, family members, dignitaries. It was like a huge Raider reunion. Charles Woodson lit the torch. Tim Brown was on the field. Lincoln Kennedy recited the Autumn wind, Mr. Raider Jim Otto ended it. On the way out of the stadium I saw Lincoln Kennedy. I wish I had asked him to sign my hat with something like, "Last Raiders home game - 12/15/19 - Lincoln Kennedy." I'm pretty sure he would have done this, as he signed stuff for others.
The athletic said gruden is tired of carr
Thank god
Thank god
