Hello all.

I am back in here after a self imposed Raider posting fast after I became too shrill to even want to read my own posts.

Carr at one point said the Raiders had 10 seasons of distractions all rolled up into 1. What I will do here is to attempt to list the bigest ones here in order of importance, something I have never seen done before.

1. The Henry Ruggs Accident and Death. This one to me is bigger than the Jon Gruden Firing. It was not just that he was DUI and speeding and that someone died but it was how the person died and how gut wrenching it was. I have a daughter a little older than the woman killed and the dog is similar to my pet dog so it was just hard to accept some one could be so reckless when so many options were available to him. It obviously put the Raiders in a funk for a while which is beyond understandable. Honestly, I questioned my own sanity being a fan to a team in a league that seems to breed this kind of behavior.

2. Jon Gruden Firing: I was not the biggest JG fan in the room. I did not like that he hired Tom Cable. I did not like how he stuck with a horrible DC for 3 years. I did not like how he likely over road the Front office on various moves. It was like a punch in the head at the time when he hired and kept Cable (pun intended). Those emails were friable in my opinion as well. However, the sleazy way the NFL leaked only his crap out to the Wall Street Journal and then to the N.Y., Times along with all the crap about how Davis didn't act sooner when the NFL itself sat on this for months if not longer. They did this while keeping all the other emails secret.

3. The Damon Arnette Gun Video: Just crazy stuff.

4. The Nate Hobbs alleged DUI: I put alleged here because he was caught sleeping. It would not of been as big a deal if the Rugg's and Jacobs incidents had not happened.

5. Darren Wallers new agent. One of the biggest scumbag agents in the business.

6. The offensive line reshuffle: Something had to be done about how bad Cable's hand picked RT was playing. So what is done is we put Parker, who is also terrible at RT and then move Leatherwood to RG (also generally terrible) while leaving Jermaine Eluemunor on the bench. So much for putting the best 5 out there. By the way, I will get to this later, Raiders overall OL rank was #28 (as per PFF) with the right side being by far the worst in the league.

The fact that this team pulled itself together and won the last four games all against possible or actual playoff teams minus the Broncos was nothing but historic. In fact no interim coach in the modern NFL has ever come in and made the playoffs. However, now the season is over and this team is barely a playoff team as it stands now. What does this team need to be a solid playoff contender?

Well lets take a look at the team:

First off the obvious weak spot of this team is the right side of the line and the LG. According to PFF all three of those positions score in the 40's and 50's with Leatherwood the worst at 44.9 for the year despite being the 17th overall pick and playing guard half the year after the OL coach pounded the table for him and convinced Gruden to pick him. The overall OL is ranked #28 in the league! With Cable at the helm the best the OL has ever done was 15th the first year after getting Incognito and Fat Brown. Every other year this OL has been a bottom feeder. The common denominator is Cable. This guy and his "miracle working ways" needs to go! Scream at Mayock all you want, but Cable admitted to following Leatherwood for years and pounding the table for him and Gruden foolishly went with the coach and did not fill in RT during FA and then drafted this guy. Whatever the Raiders do, they need to get rid of the OL coaches and also fill in for Simpson, Parker and Leatherwood next year during FA and maybe even during draft. That move alone would of probably got the Raiders 3-4 extra wins.

Secondly, with the loss of Ruggs, this team needs a top caliber WR. Maybe someone like Adams or Robinson that are clear #1 WRs. We all say Waller is like a #1 WR, but even Waller was hurt most the year and also he had a down year with injuries. Love Renfro want the Raiders to resign him but he is not a #1 WR either.

The defense played better this year than any year since 2006 for the Raiders. That is a long time. I think it can improve if they retain Crosby and allow some of these young picks to matriculate such as Moehrig, Hobbs, Diablo and Koonce. There is a need for depth at the CB position and also several inside DL guys need to be re-signed but there is cause for hope here whether Bradley returns or not. I would not be disappointed if they kept Bisaccia and Bradley and re-tooled the offensive coaching.

Finally in a shout out to all the Carr haters and stans, Derek Carr is not the Raiders problem. Can we upgrade? Possibly but not easily. Would you take two first rounders for Carr? Yes, please. However, until I see a real set of events like this unfold, Carr is the QB and that is just ok with me. Carr is an above average QB nothing more or less as much as people want to move him up and down. He ended the year ranked #8 on FB outsiders ahead of the likes of Josh Allen and Kyler Murray. In various analytic rankings as opposed to opinion rankings, he was typically from 8-12. Compare that to the offensive line (28).

Finally, everyone is going to be focused on the GM and Coach over the next few weeks. Based on what I gathered, Gruden had total say on draft and major FA signings and deferred more to the coaches while Mayock had more say in later rounds and minor FA signings. In looking at the roster, those later draft picks such as Crosby, Renfro and Hobbs are center piece building blocks while most of the first round picks fizzled. For this reason, unless I got this wrong, I think Mayock should stay and be a real GM and keep Bisaccia and Bradley and rework the offensive coaches as I do not think it works all that well without Gruden who was more/less a glorified OC with an outsized ego. With the new OC invest in some pieces at OL and WR and give Carr yet another prove it year - the last on his contract. Also let Jacobs just play out his contract or give him 5th year but do not extend him.