Mark Long Beach

Well, an _okay_ depth player. I also hope he keeps improving with the offense.

Regardless of whatever else happens. We re-signed one of our best free agents. At worst he's a quality backup who's well respected by his teammates, his coaches and his fans. Fortunately the front office as well. Not everything is worth being pessimistic about. This is a good move.

Bingo. Not to mention he once was a great player but has been on a pretty significant decline for a while. He really needs to be a penetrator but he can't do that so well anymore. I think he still has a little left and he is a wily vet (and a good guy). But honestly, I don't think he'll live up to a $2.5M DL.

True 'dat. I wouldn't be willing to throw that much coin at him. Too much for too long for too much risk. But what a d-line we'd have. Then we could draft some LBs

Well I'm not losing sleep over it since I didn't think it all that likely we could pry him away. But as to paying him top 5 money... It's a risk no doubt, but he has improved over time and was very good last year. Was it a payday year, or has he just gotten better? Shrug. Don't know the guy. But let me make it clear I'd LOVE to have him on our team.

Dogs are not people. Therefore Vick isn't sociopathic. In the wrong, absolutely. But not sociopathic. I view it quite simply: people >> dogs. When you throw in Vick being surrounded by it socially, it makes it more sad for me (still wrong). Also important for me is that Vick has been apologetic and contrite and BBen has not.

Excellent point. This one was worse, but stupid is as stupid does.

If they did, they weren't taken. Only a couple of questions got asked before they switched to old stories. Was good overall albeit brief. Stated the company line that he's coaching the ILBs but will help out all over. Stated that he's worked with Edwards before along with other coaching staff. He thought the defense took hits early on during due to 3-4 switch and (from another interview section) that the coaches didn't yet know what each players individual strengths were so they couldn't scheme to take advantage of them. Thought they got noticeably better through the year in the little things. Was pleased with the attitude of the players, not at all what you'd expect given their record. The feeling amongst the players is that they will do much better next year. Wasn't worried at all about being able to stop the run. To me, he sounded shockingly confident that would be taken care of. This was probably the only real surprise to me in the whole interview. Supremely confident in this.

Thanks! Q: "Are you a short-timer here?" a: "Oh no, I'm in with both feet" paraphrasing: I didn't need to do this but I enjoy the challenge and who I'll be working with.

+1

We thought we had a decent SILB in last years free-agent signing Andre Davis. Unfortunately he got hurt very early on. He tried to play though it but was unsuccessful and IIRC was IRed not too long into the season. We didn't have an adequate replacement, and it showed. At OLB we have Merriman (HUGE question mark) who could be dominating or could be an early IR candidate(Sigh). Kelsey who's not a good fit for the role (decent as a 4-3 DE which we'll sometimes run) And Moats who has some promise, but no guarantees that he takes a step forward. We have nobody of any quality behind those three, just some warm bodies. Granted I think a couple are good enough to keep as backups, but we were dead-last vs the run with them starting so I'm not that impressed. Maybe Batten has promise but we've not seen enough of him to know. At the Other ILB position we have nobody unless we resign Poz. Even with Poz he hasn't made it through a season uninjured. Pretty much every single LB position we have is a big question mark. Moats MIGHT be our smallest question mark, but there are absolutely no guarantees that he can take a step forward. We've had plenty of examples of guys with early promise who never got better such as Ko "I'm worth Millions" Simpson. Or even guys who show promise but take a long time to get good (and still may not)like our young LT Demitrius Bell. Bottom line is we've got lots of risk with little depth.

Since I'm not a fan of a CB or WR at number 3 I'd be thrilled to make this move.

That was great. Thank you. I really loved the full on roar of the crowd through the whole performance. It really felt electric and alive to me.

IMO I have Sanders ahead of Green. I liked Green very much, but Sanders was more dominant to me. I never expected to be impressed by a cornerback. But I'm still impressed.

Yeah, the Rooney rule smacks a lot of being PC and I don't like that. However, it IS working. More AA coaching prospects getting interviewed and more AA coaches are getting hired. Remember, all it does is help ensure people get interviews. If they show well at the interview they may get hired. If you can't even get the interview, you surely can't get hired. It's opportunity, folks. That's all it is: just an opportunity to shine. When I look at it from that perspective I don't mind it so much.

I knew Snyder was a jerk, but I didn't know just how far around the bend he is. IMO Ralph is a bit misguided. He doesn't always make the best decisions, but he's not out to screw everyone around him nor try to make a buck at everybody else's expense. Ralph does spend money, just not always wisely (e.g. Dockery, Langston Walker (who at least was a decent RT) etc). That was a great article thanks for pointing it out!

I started it, but quit as it's focused on local fans. It might be a good idea to list who you are targeting in the introduction. Since you've released it on the internet you'll get all kinds of weirdos (and non-locals) like me.

As everyone knows our top picks have essentially bombed out for the last 10 years or so. We have very little game changing talent. High quality players like Lee Evans and Schoebel get paid (and even some not-so high quality players like Kelsey). The problem is we just don't have many people worth paying. Would I like to have kept some players that we let go? Sure, Pat Williams & Greer for example but for the most part I have had no problems with the large amount of players let go. Not many have we missed. We get a few more game changers and some success our payroll will go up.

And Adam Morrison has two rings with the LA Lakers even though he played about 12 minutes for both seasons. It's a team sport, all participants get a ring. Not all contributions are equal, not all ring distributions are equal either.

All too true. But remember, it's mostly frustration and and some schadenfreud speaking. It's also made all the worse because we've struggled for so long, that many who'll still spend the effort to post are those who's passions still run hot (and negatively hot at this point)

Ellison isn't a good fit for a 3-4; he's depth for a 4-3 only; so he's gone. It's possible Youboty stays, but he's more a gamer than a practice guy and he's not hit the field to prove it recently. He's had some nice moments, but wouldn't shock me if he's gone. His chances improve if we don't keep Drayton whom I think we should keep. Maybe Corto sticks at bottom of roster for Special teams. Those last roster spots are crapshoots. I think gone: 7 + (your 8 - maybe youboty) Brohm Not up to NFL speed Stroud Lost a step and not effective enough for that much money. Nelson - a receiving TE that doesn't catch well enough and can't block well enough with major health risks.

I hope he does come here. He's proven, talented and has historically worked well with our Head Coach. Those are some monster advantages right there. He's a much better Pro coach than a college one. He's also a better coordinator than a Head coach. We have a number of other advantages as well. We're early in the head coaches career here (meaning that he's less likely to be fired in a year or two) in a rebuilding phase no less so expectations are low. We've already started the rebuild and have bottomed out so there's nowhere to go but up. Every positive defensive gain will be attributed to him. We're not devoid of talent either. (Although we are poor in the LB ranks and have no depth) That's a lot of positives in our favor.

The dude clearly has the passion for it. Passion coupled with hard work can get you far in life.

Al Davis is an easy guy for me to loathe. So I've been really enjoying all of his consistent screw-ups over the last decade or so. I was starting to worry since the Raiders were looking like they turned the corner and were on their way up. Whew! Situation Normal, All F<ouled> up! The only way I'd have any respect for Al was if he truly did fire Cable for the Domestic violence issues. But Al doesn't sit around, and he's not averse to lawsuits to prevent paying any money. If that truly were the reason he'd have been gone long ago, IMO. I much more believe the coach wouldn't dance exactly to Davis's whims such as the reported conflict over benching of some of the rookies.

Lechler is very well respected by the Raider players and has been around for 10 years in the organization. He knows how Davis will react to him speaking out. As a punter he is actually safer than another position. Not even Al will keep two punters on his team so he can't be buried like Marcus Allen was. He'll be either still there or released. Since is the best person in the NFL at his position, he will not be unemployed long nor for a discount. yup. He also comes across as a stand-up guy even though he's speaking out against the team. (Al Davis) It won't give any other team much qualms about picking him up.