Alright, so day 1 in free agency is in the books in the NFL and if youre a Raider fan, you may be scratching your head as many have shown, and if youre ranting... my only question is why? Lets see, today we lost Veldheer, Houston, and Jennings. Gained Saffold and Howard, and kept McFadden. But let me address our losses first. Really? After looking at the aftermath of the negotiations, you guys are mad at Reggie for players that didnt want to stay? You honestly think we didnt match the Cardinals offer? Obviously Jared didnt want to be here and the only way to keep him was to throw big money at him (sound familiar?) This is a guy who also was plagued with injuries missing 11 games last year, and in those 11 games, we got our only 4 wins without him. So is he really that irreplaceable? We should wish him luck but its clear he did not want to continue his career in Oakland and we should be happy we no longer have someone whos going to use this money unsparingly. Also its rumored from Veldheers sources that Raiders offered 50M, which is more than what Saffold got, so if thats the case, why are we belittling Reggie? Lamarr Houston, another guy Im baffled you guys feel we absolutely should throw money at to keep. The only upside was he was young, and was good at stopping the run, but look at our schedule and see the QB/HB ratio impact were facing, do you want to give this money to someone who is going to give you only 6 sacks when theres a fast and wide market of guys that can still get you 10 or more? Ive already explained why we shouldnt freak out and the list is too long to go over that again. Jennings... now heres my question to that: how many of you guys were so high on him last season, heck... who in the entire NFL was so high on him? When he came here from Jacksonville I remember everyone saying, Who? and now look at us, mad at Reggie because Rashad decided he wanted to leave. It was clear as day that we wanted to keep him and let McFadden go where he desired, but that only happened halfway. Rashad, like the previous two players, drew up a big smokescreen and made us believe they wanted to be in Oakland, which was obviously not entirely true, because if he wanted to start here, he clearly had the upper hand. Saffold and Howard, glad we picked them up, it doesnt guarantee sucess but shows RM making smart decisions and the best he can at preventing costly ones. Then there is McFadden, and let me say this, I am appalled how most reacted to this? What is wrong with you, the one guy who wanted to stay in Oakland and did what he had to in order to do so, and he gets booed by his own fans? He dedicated an opportunity to redeem himself for his fans and you jeer him? This man could have left us, being sold as one of the highest risk and yet high reward player, he could have left us but decided he wants to be a team player. But still my question is to why are we flipping out? Lets look at last year, Reggie purges our roster and everyone flips out, we lost all but one defensive starters and most offensive starters including Carson Palmer. Then... like what youre all doing now, everyone hits the panic button. Fire Reggie! was on the loose. But then comes Burnett, then Roach, Jenkins, Walker, Sims, Porter and then the grand finale, Charles Woodson, which were moves made on a budget near the end of free agency, now we label him a Genius! And here we are doing the same thing, upset because Reggie is playing poker and is trying to not go All in on every deal played on the table. Yet no one is seeing the big picture that hes keeping his promise, he is signing players that WANT to be in Oakland, that WANT to win ball games, and WANT to be team players, if you dont like it then look at our pre-Reggie transactions and see how well they served us being strapped by the cap. Heck, look at the cowboys, you want to be that again? That the only way to keep your best players are by salary cuts, because you paid your 1-playoff-win QB and everyone else so much? Or how about Miami and Vikings, to go All in in free agency and rest of off-season because you believed the hype, then to not even make playoffs. Well guess what? Youre going to have to do it all over again and now all that spending is considered a waste. Rome was not built in a day... -Juan
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 05:34:43 +0000
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