Top Free Agents OLB Phillip Wheeler Wheeler had a remarkable season considering where he was last season. After spending a few years as a nondescript two down run stuffer in Indianapolis, Wheeler signed with the Raiders for less than a million dollars last off-season and was a bright spot on an otherwise miserable defense. The [...]
For the first time in about 50 years, someone else other than Al Davis was making the personnel decisions for the Raiders last offseason, following Davis’ passing in October of 2011. However, the new front office didn’t have a lot to work with. Al Davis mortgaged the team’s future for two 8-8 seasons in 2010 [...]
Oakland Raiders (4-11) at San Diego Chargers (6-9) Aside from this being a divisional matchup, this is a completely meaningless game for these two teams. Both are out of the playoffs by a long shot. I have a rule against making significant plays on completely meaningless games. If the teams might not care about a [...]
Last week: 30 (+0) Record: 4-11 Net points per drive: -0.80 (29th) DVOA: -27.7% (29th) Weighted DVOA: -26.7% (30th) Studs FS Matt Giordano: Did not allow a catch on 1 attempt, 1 pass deflection, 2 solo tackles, 2 stops LE Lamarr Houston: 1 quarterback hit and 8 quarterback hurries on 35 pass rush snaps, 3 [...]
Oakland Raiders (4-10) at Carolina Panthers (5-9) One of my favorite trends is the six and six trend, which says that teams who finish with 6 wins or fewer are 23-64 ATS since 2002 as favorites of 6 or more. So far this year, teams that are currently 5-9 or worse are 2-5 ATS as [...]
Last week: 31 (+1) Record: 4-10 Net points per drive: -0.76 (30th) DVOA: -28.2% (30th) Weighted DVOA: -28.1% (30th) The Raiders shut out the Chiefs last week and still are tied for the league’s worst scoring defense. Aside from a weird win over the Steelers week 3, the Raiders wins have all come against the [...]
Kansas City Chiefs (2-11) at Oakland Raiders (3-10) I picked the Chiefs as 6.5 point dogs last week in Cleveland because they were in such a good spot, but I made sure not to make it a huge play because I wasn’t sure how they’d respond once they had a week for the Jovan Belcher [...]
Last week: 32 (+1) Record: 3-10 Net points per drive: -0.91 (31st) DVOA: -31.9% (30th) Weighted DVOA: -31.7% (30th) The Raiders’ only remaining home game right now is against the Chiefs and their last chance for a win, as they have to go to Carolina and San Diego and I can’t see them winning either [...]
Last week: 30 (-2) Record: 3-9 Net points per drive: -0.9 (31st) DVOA: -34.6% (31st) Weighted DVOA: -34.9% (32nd) Studs C Stefen Wisniewski: Allowed 1 quarterback hurry on 56 pass block snaps, run blocked for 36 yards on 5 attempts TE Brandon Myers: Caught 14 passes for 130 yards and a touchdown on 15 attempts [...]
Denver Broncos (9-3) at Oakland Raiders (3-9) The Raiders actually gave a little bit of effort last week. They still lost at home to the previously 3-8 Browns in a game they trailed throughout, but that was sadly a big step up from where they were the week before. In their 3 games prior, they [...]
Cleveland Browns (3-8) at Oakland Raiders (3-8) The Raiders seem to have completely quit. They’ve lost 4 straight by a combined score of 169-79. Reports out of their practices aren’t pretty either as middle linebacker Rolando McClain, actually one of their better defensive players, has been suspended for 2 games for conduct detrimental to the [...]
Last week: 30 (+0) Record: 3-8 Net points per drive: -0.93 (31st) DVOA: -37.7% (31st) Weighted DVOA: -38.3% (32nd) Tier 7: Terrible Studs RB Marcel Reece: Rushed for 74 yards (54 after contact) on 15 attempts, 7 broken tackles, caught 4 passes for 29 yards on 8 attempts, 2 drops, 1 interception when thrown to [...]
Oakland Raiders (3-7) at Cincinnati Bengals (5-5) Every year, one team goes from the playoffs to 5 wins or fewer. The Bengals now stand at 5-5, but I won’t rule out them losing out. The Lions at 4-6 are the favorite this year and I also won’t rule out that we won’t have one this [...]
Last week: 30 (+0) Record: 3-7 The Raiders have lost two straight in embarrassing fashion, losing 55-20 to the Ravens and 38-17 to the Saints last week at home and they’ve now allowed 135 points in their last 3 games. The good news is that teams generally do well after two straight losses by 21 [...]
New Orleans Saints (4-5) at Oakland Raiders (3-6) The Saints are overrated. Yes, they knocked off Atlanta, but Dallas, Carolina, Washington, and Oakland almost did so. Their defense is still a joke. Because of their defense, they rank 28th in yards per play differential and 25th in rate of sustaining drives differential. Their defense ranks dead last [...]
Last week: 30 (+0) Record: 3-6 The Raiders surrendered the biggest points total of the year last week in Baltimore and it was just as bad as it sounded. They allowed two special teams touchdowns (one off a fake field goal, one off a kick return) and blew two separate 4th downs thanks to botched [...]
Oakland Raiders (3-5) at Baltimore Ravens (6-2) The Ravens may be 6-2, but dating back to week 1, this team has not won a single game by 10 or more and only one was decided by more than a touchdown, last week at Cleveland, a game in which the lowly Browns actually scored more frequently [...]
Last week: 30 (-1) Record: 3-5 Oakland/Tampa Bay was a crazy game for statistics. Everyone knows about Doug Martin’s 272 total yards and 4 total touchdowns, which was the 4th highest single game fantasy football total in history. However, we also had Carson Palmer throw for 414 yards and 4 touchdowns in a losing effort [...]
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-4) at Oakland Raiders (3-4) After unimpressive wins over the Jaguars and Chiefs, the Raiders now sit at 3-4 and are somehow in the AFC playoff mix. However, they still aren’t very good. They have a point differential of -42. They got blown out in Oakland and in Miami and they weren’t [...]
Last week: 29 (+2) Record: 3-4 After unimpressive wins over the crappy Jaguars and Chiefs, the Raiders are now 3-4 and somehow right in the thick of the playoff race. However, I’m still not sold on this team just because they beat some crappy teams. They schedule gets tougher going forward as they host Tampa [...]
Oakland Raiders (2-4) at Kansas City Chiefs (1-5) Before the bye, I made a big play on the Chiefs to win in Tampa Bay because I felt they were undervalued because of their terrible turnover differential. I noted how they were on a record worst pace in turnover differential and that, at the very least, [...]
Last week: 29 (-2) Record: 2-4 I went back and forth between the Raiders and Chiefs here, but I ultimately decided to drop the Raiders to this spot, in spite of their overtime home win. If you need Blaine Gabbert to get hurt to beat the Jaguars in overtime at home, you might as well [...]
Jacksonville Jaguars (1-4) at Oakland Raiders (1-4) In the write up for Colts/Browns, I mentioned Bill Simmons’ theory from his picks column this week that because dogs are doing so well this year (57-32 ATS), the odds makers would start shrinking the spreads to compensate so the general public won’t catch on and just starting [...]
Last week: 30 (+1) Record: 1-4 The Raiders move up, not because I was impressed with their near win in Atlanta, fluky things like that happen all the time in the NFL and I rarely put much stock in them, but because I think Kansas City proved that they sucked more this week with their [...]
Oakland Raiders (1-3) at Atlanta Falcons (5-0) Matt Ryan is 27-5 in his career at home, including 22-10 ATS and the Falcons are 5-0. The Raiders, meanwhile, are 1-3, coming off a blowout loss to the Broncos (before the bye) and have to travel to Atlanta and play a 1 PM ET game as a [...]