RaiderCast Blogs

Receiver at #7; Front Line help rounds 2-7

Raiders must draft a receiver at #7.

Question… When was the last time the Raiders drafted a WR in the first round?  Anybody know the answer. If so, then I’ll buy you a couple of beers (assuming you live in the Bay Area) at Ricky’s.  The last time Oakland drafted a WR was 20 years ago and the guy that we drafted was named Tim Brown.

So what am I getting at? Easy. Although I would love to get a more stout line, particularly a new right tackle and right guard, we cannot ignore the fact that this team does not have any impact players on offense outside of Darren McFadden.  This team needs much needed speed at WR, guys who have the ability to do two things:  force the back seven to respect the vertical game and wr who can actually create yards after first contact.  It just so happen that there are three guys in the first round that can do this.  Who are these players?

Michael Crabtree – Texas Tech, Jeremy Maclin Missouri and Percy Harvin from Florida.  Realistically speaking, Crabtree and/or Maclin make the most sense just based on where they are projected. Harvin is a gamer but he goes mid or late first in my humble opinion.

With Jamarcus Russell at quarterback you need top level talent at WR.  He isn’t the type of quarterback (yet) who is creative enough to win with mediocre or bad talent. We need to start surrounding the kid with guys who are gamers, red zone threats and people who will open up the running game even more for Bush, McFadden and Fargas. With a pro style passing attack and an upgrade at WR, we will see more seven man fronts and we can become even more creative.

It is foolish for anyone to think that we are okay with the likes of Johnny Lee Higgins, Chad Schilens, and Javon Walker at wr. With the exception of Higgins, we have the slowest pair of starting receivers in the year – particularly Walker and Schilens who are nothing more than pure possession guys. Higgins, while he showed some nice moments is not a guy who will be consistent over a sixteen game season; and, moreover, he is important to our special teams; in fact, he has become our version of Devin Hester in that teams will start to fear him as a punt returner.

For too many years we have counted on wide outs that have been either projects taken in day two of the draft, or stiff wide outs who would win a bodybuilding competition (Jerry Porter.)  It is time to bring the element of speed back to Oakland. It is time to draft a playmaker rather than some mammoth line that cannot pass block to save his ass. It is time to.  Well…  you get it…

In closing, if we want to start to win some more and score points we need to address the issue of WR hardly. Arizona has proven you don’t need a dominant line to win; they have one of the worst run-blocking lines in football and their pass blocking is not that much better.  Roth from PITT has been sacked the most of any quarterback in the last four years.  The theory of getting line guys in the first round works, but for OAKLAND an upgrade at WR is a must and it happens that the guys on the board fit the build of best player available.

Andre Smith, Jason Smith, Eugene Monroe, and Michael Oher are okay, but none of them are franchise types who fall in the line of a Jonathon Ogden or a Joe Thomas. Further, with the dept at OT, we can avoid to go with a skill guy in round one. This is one deep draft at OT.

Let me repeat this one more time for Raider fans that still do not get it: if we don’t draft Maclin or Crabtree we are fucking stupid. We passed on Fitz, Roy Williams, Adrian Peterson and countless other impact players.

SPEED KILLS!!!

Black Hole Eric aka GenRaider