Up To Speed- Oakland Raiders

LAST SEASON
2006 represented the low point in the history of the Raider franchise. Only 4 years removed from a Super Bowl appearance, the Raiders bottomed out under the exhumed Art Shell, posting the 2-14 record that is the long-established mark of a truly horrible team.

What was odd about this 2-14 team, was that they reached this level of futility despite having the third ranked defense in the NFL. That doesn't seem possible, but if you saw the Raiders' offense, it starts to make a lot more sense. Aaron Brooks was supposed to be the starting QB, but he was dismal, and the replacement, Andrew Walter, was even worse. The running game was just as bad as Lamont Jordan wrestled with injuries, inefficiency, and Ding Dongs en route to a miserable 434 yard season. Meanwhile, the team's supposed offensive superstar, Randy Moss, was unmotivated and virtually invisible.

OFFSEASON
As you'd expect a 2-14 team to do, the Raiders completely blew things up in the offseason. They conceded the Art Shell experiment was a disaster. What fools they were to bring in a guy who hadn't been a head coach in 14 years. This year, they decided to do the exact opposite, and bring in a guy who was in junior high during Shell's first tenure, 31 year old Lane Kiffin. Kiffin has offensive credentials as the former co-offensive coordinator at USC, and as the son of longtime NFL assistant Monte Kiffin is a member of the NFL lucky sperm club. We know from the head coaching tenures of Jim Mora Jr., David Shula, Wade Phillips, etc. that hiring a member of that club always works great.

The Raiders also cut bait on Moss, trading him to the Patriots. With Moss gone, the Raiders will be relying on Jerry Porter and Ronald Curry to stay healthy all season, which has not occurred in this dimension nor in any other. If either of those guys go down, former Lion first round bust Mike Williams will be there to come to the rescue.

Former Colt Dominic Rhodes was brought in to share the load with Jordan at running back, but he's going to miss 4 games with a banned substance suspension announced this week. Super.

At QB, we'll probably see former Cardinal and Lion backup/sometimes starter Josh McCown hold down the fort until first overall pick JaMarcus Russell is deemed ready. The Raiders hope Russell will repeat the success Vince Young had last year. Since they are both big, black quarterbacks, I don't see why that should not happen. With logic like that how can you lose?

The Raiders did make one nice move this offseason, bringing former Bronco Cooper Carlisle to help their offensive line. It's all about winning for that guy, how else can you explain why he would sign with the Raiders?

The defense is exactly the same as last year. They did, after all, rank 3rd in the league. Why mess with success? Unless you ranked 25th against the run, like the Raiders did, and you play in a division with LT, LJ, and whoever the Broncos 1500 yard back will be this year, then I think you may want to look at messing with it. The Raiders didn't though. Warren Sapp will still be getting run over every other snap.

The hire of Kiffin is supposed to mark a bold new direction for this franchise. I dunno, this smells a lot more to me like a Mike White or Art Shell II esque hire than a Jon Gruden hire. Now you're up to speed on the Raiders.