Mid-season report: Oakland “Can’t Get Right” Raiders Edition

Oakland Raiders:

The Situation: The Raiders are 2-4 and could argue that they should be 3-3 if it weren’t for kicker Sebastian Janokowski chip shot 32 yard field goal miss. But the Raiders are tied for last place in the AFC West.

The Problems: For years the Raiders have struggled on the offensive side of the ball and once again they are struggling this year to score points in the redzone. The offensive line is still a work in progress. The Raiders drafted two rookie tackles in this year’s NFL Draft. Tackles Bruce Campbell and Jared Veldheer have had their share of mistakes, but have shown some promise. RG Cooper Calisle has struggled tremendously this year. He doesn’t open up any holes for the Raiders RB’s. LT Mario Henderson is not a starter, I don’t know why head coach Tom Cable has so much faith in the third year player. He gets beat constantly.

The QB position is in flux again, off-season free agent signee Jason Campbell was suppose to be the next Jim Plunkett according to owner Al Davis. Campbell was suppose to bring stability to the QB position, but the only thing he has brought to Oakland is jokes and humor.  Campbell’s play this year has been straight laughable and horrible. I can’t believe Al Davis says Campbell reminds him of Jim Plunkett, come on Al, so far Campbell’s putrid play has reminded me of JaMarcus Russell. Campbell struggles with reading defenses and his accuracy has been an issue. Last week against the 49ers Campbell only threw for 83 yards and his passer rating was 10.7!

The free safety position still continues to be a weakness for this team. Michael Huff is too inconsistent and has too many mental breakdowns in a game. His game is up and down. One minute he plays good then the next he is getting beat.

The CB position which was once a strength is now a major weakness. I don’t know why the Raiders drafted Stanford Routt, well I know why because he has speed, speed, speed. What good is having track speed when you are constantly getting burned, burned, and burned. Chris Johnson seems to get slower each year. He is struggling playing nickel, if you can’t play the nickel position decently then you shouldn’t be able to play in the league!

The Solutions: Draft draft draft some good talent, not players based on potential but who have produced. First the Raiders need a good young quarterback who is accurate, Campbell isn’t. Sam Bradford would of looked good in a Raiders uniform this year. He has led the Rams to more victories than the Raiders this year.

The offensive line needs a complete makeover, Henderson and Carlisle need to be cut. The Raiders need some feisty and scrappy offensive lineman. They need some maulers guys who will just push and knock you on your @$%!

The secondary needs a makeover as well. Huff time is up, he could be a decent backup, but thats it. Chris Johnson and Stanford Routt have struggled and owe an apology to the league’s best cover corner in Nnamdi Asmougha for making him look bad. They give up too many negative plays. If you can’t play man to man coverage in Oakland then how can you play corner in the NFL.