Oakland Raiders Offensive Woes

September 29, 2006 @ 16:00:00

By Brian Dean
Edited by Cory J. Bonini

The Oakland Raiders' offense has been so terrible it's hard to pinpoint where the problem is. After an 0-2 start, featuring the league's worst offense, the players and coaching staff are butting heads. The offensive line is in shambles. Starting quarterback Aaron Brooks has already gone down for 2-to-4 weeks with a strained pectoral muscle. Oakland's premier playmaker, wide receiver Randy Moss, has yet to make any big plays. There is still hope to turn things around after an early bye week, if only just a little.

Table: Oakland Raiders 2006 Offensive Statistics

Games	NFL Rank	Yds/game	Pts/game	Yds/play
2	32	145.5	3.0	2.7

Brooks was really only a placeholder at quarterback to begin with. Nobody really thought he would be a long-term solution for the Raiders. Backup quarterback Andrew Walter, who the organization is high on, will be making his first career start against the Cleveland Browns Oct. 1. Walter will have an extremely difficult time trying to prove he is quarterback of the future behind an offensive line that has played worse than any unit in the league. Still, the strong-armed Walter likely holds more fantasy value than Brooks in the long run. Quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo will be the No. 2 until Brooks is healthy while wide receiver Ronald Curry will serve as emergency quarterback. The team may also audition veteran quarterbacks and even bring Jeff George back in the fold, but no moves have been made yet.

Coming into the season running back LaMont Jordan was a no-brainer first-round pick in most fantasy leagues. Head coach Art Shell's old school, smash-mouth style was only supposed to enhance Jordan's value as a fantasy stud. To date, Jordan has only managed 1.9 yards per carry in 29 attempts for 55 yards. Jordan has yet to notch a single reception this season and Shell noted, "That's one of the things I wrote down. We need to get the ball to our backs out of the backfield. We need to do that. We need to put more pressure on the defense by doing that."

If Walter can get protection up front and mesh with Moss, fantasy value may be promising for both players. Moss still has some gas left in the tank, but his patience is wearing thin. The Jerry Porter situation continues to be a head-scratcher. Porter has been inactive in both games thus far, and there doesn't appear to be any change in his situation. There have been trade talks, but nothing noteworthy has come of them. Shell continues to be tight-lipped about whether Porter will suit up any time soon.

There is only one way to go from here for the Raiders' offensive line. Left tackle Robert Gallery has been a huge disappointment and is a microcosm of what is going on in Oakland. Rookie offensive guard Kevin Boothe has replaced rookie offensive guard Paul McQuistan, but it is not necessarily an improvement for this group. There has been talk that the schemes up front are outdated. Things could improve greatly if those issues can be ironed out by the coaching staff. If not, expect a long, long season.

Jordan had this to say about the situation, "What I'm saying is that offensively, as a whole, we have to play better, and it starts up front. That's not bashing my linemen, but it starts up front. Our success and our failures, it starts up front."

Table: Defensive Statistics - 2006

Date	Team	NFL Rank	Yds/game	Pts/game
10/1	CLE	28	382.3	22.7
10/8	@ SF	25	349.3	28.3
10/15	@ DEN	18	322.0	10.3
10/22	ARI	26	366.0	21.3

That was the bad news. The good news? San Diego and Baltimore are the two top-ranked defenses in the league. Of Oakland's next four opponents, only Denver's defense has allowed less than 20 points per game. The next two weeks in particular, at home against Cleveland and in San Francisco, should really give fantasy owners an idea of what to realistically expect from Oakland's offense.

So hold on to your Raiders for now. Wait it out. In two weeks, re-evaluate the situation. Fantasy owners may find they have some valuable pieces in terms of trade value and maybe even a bona fide starter or two.

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Brian Dean

Brian "Birdman" Dean has been a contributor at KFFL since 2005. This musician and lifelong athlete is known at KFFL for his foresight and dead-on predictions, as witnessed by his back-to-back NFL mock draft title.

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