It has been a dizzying past month for the Raiders franchise. As I noted Monday, the worst moves the Raiders made this season were the ones they didn’t make. And that lack of shoring up their weak points colors most of the additions they did have such as cornerback, safety, and offensive tackle.
No addition makes you scratch your head more than signing Kenyan Drake to a two-year, $11 million deal.
That move along with the gutting of the once-dominant offensive line have confused many, including salary cap expert Jason Fitzgerald who runs the site OverTheCap.com.
“I don’t know. Nothing they do makes sense,” Fitzgerald told The Athletic. “One of their top free agent signings was a running back. I like the Ngakoue deal. Those are good numbers that they got for him. It’s good value.
“But everything else that they have done, you can tell this is a team that’s run by someone who hadn’t been involved in running an NFL team for a decade or for however long it was that Gruden was at ESPN. It has that feel. This has the complete feel of the 2000 (Bill) Parcells era of running franchises. You run to these veteran players, and the minute that somebody makes a peep about something, you cut him. It just doesn’t look like it’s gonna be successful.”
The piece did laud the additions of Yannick Ngakoue as well as John Brown to replace departed Nelson Agholor. But outside of that, there is a lot to scratch your head about.
They did do some good things. If you would like some positivity, here are my top five moves by the Raiders this offseason.
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