The Oakland Raiders have been one of the more active teams in the offseason this past year and while many of their moves can be looked at as positive, not everyone in the media agrees, as the solid football website Pro Football Talk listed the Raiders as the number 32 team in their preseason power rankings.
The website admits that the team looks better now than they did before the draft in April, but the moves and draft picks they have made doesn't quite add up to a division winner yet. The website says that the AFC West isn't an impossible division apart from the Denver Broncos, as the Chiefs and Chargers has problems last year as well, but starting off, the Raiders have some serious ground to cover in 2013. The team has a new quarterback in Matt Flynn after getting rid of former Pro Bowl quarterback Carson Palmer and while they are hopeful for him, he is still very untested after coming over from the Seattle Seahawks.
The team shed a number of contracts and Reggie McKenzie brought in some solid veterans, but after having a terrible salary cap situation, the team is setting up for 2014 and 2013 could end up being a "bridge" season as they work out their next moves. Darren McFadden will be one of the key players involved in all of it, as he is entering a contract season and will be expected to stay on the field for the first time in his career. He has never played in more than 13 games and over the past two seasons he has played in seven and 12 games respectively. His best season came in 2010 when he had over 1,000 yards rushing and McKenzie will be hoping for that again before giving him a contract extension.
Marcel Reece is a solid running back and Rashad Jennings will help too, but the biggest thing for Matt Flynn to be successful will be McFadden, as a solid running game will keep teams from ganging up on him and the passing game. The team signed Josh Cribbs and while he may play some receiver, the team is going to rely on Denarius Moore, Rod Streater and Jacoby Ford to step up as well as Brice Butler.
The special teams should be solid with Sebastian Janikowski and new punter Chris Kluwe as well as Cribbs, while the defense should be much improved as well. McKenzie brought in a brand new secondary with Mike Jenkins, Tracy Porter and Charles Woodson and he also added DJ Hayden with the team's first round pick in the draft. Flynn is a weakness until he can prove he can play and fans may want to see what Tyler Wilson has if he struggles.
The defense will need to do better in rushing the passer, although the linebackers will be improved with Nick Roach and Kevin Burnett coming as free agents after the team lost Philip Wheeler. Darrius Heyward-Bey, Michael Huff, Tommy Kelly, Richard Seymour, Rolando McClain and many others are gone and while some of them played a big role on the team, others like McClain were a poison and now the defense can work on getting better overall.
The team went just 4-12 last season and although they are ranked number 32 in the PFT rankings, that could change by the end of the preseason.
