The in, the out, the cut and the speculation

By Os Davis  |   Tuesday, August 26, 2008  |  Comments( 22 )

Oakland Raiders
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In performing the requisite roster-trimming heading out of preseason, the Oakland Raiders announced a number of changes Monday. A brief look at Raiders outgoing and incoming as the final shape of the 2008 team solidifies ...

On injured reserve: John Bowie, Drew Carter, Oren O’Neal. Carter and O’Neal are of course the two who went down last weekend in the embarrassing shutout loss to the Arizona Cardinals which left the Oakland offense even less well-armed than before. Bowie, that infamous trivia-question answer, hadn’t practiced with the team since July because of a knee injury. While the secondary is certainly strong enough in Oakland to weather the season without Bowie, the man beginning the year essentially on the third string, the pair of hits to the offense is disastrous.

In: Luke Lawton. It was a terse Lane Kiffin who gave a conference call Saturday night to Raider media, almost as though he’d personally been sitting with the recently turned pens over at Silver and Black Pride. When asked if, in lieu of O’Neal, Oakland would be bringing in a new fullback, Kiffin stated, “I would sure hope so. We only have one, in Justin [Griffith]. The other guy [Marcel Reece]’s a receiver converted to fullback...” One has to wonder, though, if Lawton was the guy Kiffin had in mind.

Lawton has been with seven teams (and two of them – the Buffalo Bills and New York Giants – twice) in five seasons. Though he can actually boast of having won a Super Bowl ring with the Indianapolis Colts, Lawton did not appear on the field for one minute of the 2006 run; in fact, Lawton had played in just 15 games in his career, including four on special teams.

Like it or not, it seems, Lawton’s time is now. Or Kiffin goes with “the other guy.”

Cut: Jarrod Cooper, Grant Irons, Greg Spires. Local media credited the impressiveness of Tyvon Branch “as the backup strong safety and gunner Friday against the Cardinals” as reason for the cutting of 30-year-old Cooper and his intended upcoming retirement. Unfortunate for him, then, because despite reportedly poor play in the last couple games, Cooper was having one heck of an aggressive and frankly surreal preseason.

The release of Irons wasn’t too much of a surprise; even last week, the six-year man had reportedly attended only “a handful of practices” and was notably injured more than once in the preseason. Irons may be too dinged up to play anywhere at all.

Spires may be at the end of his NFL rope as well. After his long run with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that included the Super Bowl win, Spires hoped to hitch on with the Raiders, who originally imagined the 34-year-old to be filling the vacuum left at right DE with Chris Clemons’ departure. No go, and the Raider Nation now has to hope it was all about the impressiveness of Derrick Burgess. Sadly for Spires, his stated goal in springtime was “to go out on my terms.”

In: Marviel Underwood. Now here’s a comeback story to root for. After running up some gaudy statistics in four years at San Diego State, Underwood was a fourth-round pick in the 2005 draft by the Green Bay Packers. Though he saw much action as a second-stringer with the Pack and appeared to be part of then-rookie coach Mike McCarthy’s immediate restructuring plans, Underwood wrecked some knee ligaments in preseason 2006, was placed on IR, waived by the Packers, waived by the Denver Broncos, and hasn’t played an NFL game since.

It remains to be seen how much time Underwood actually has as a Raider, but here’s wishing him luck.

The speculation: Wide receiver. Though Oakland is expected under league rules to cut one more player as soon as possible, Kiffin knows another WR is probably necessary. Said coach: “It would be tough to only go with two guys [Ronald Curry and Javon Walker, the latter hardly a Kiffin favorite] who have ever really played before.”

So let’s get the ball rolling: What say you, Raider Nation? Can Al Davis and the organization afford a trade for Anquan Boldin?
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's ...
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CommentsComments: 22  |  Sign Up  View all comments
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No.1
02:10 AM
08/26/2008
os, what say you? your whole article sounds like my comment from yesterday..anyways janikowski is due back and unfortunately ...
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No.2
RaiderSensation		02:12 AM
08/26/2008
Hmmm, first the Pack, then the Donks, now us. Why does that sound so familiar? I liked Jarrod Cooper's character, but he sucks ...
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No.3
02:21 AM
08/26/2008
latest cap number as of august 25th: Oakland Raiders $4.2 million, lets see we need a wr, Lt, c, Fb. yep this just in...we are ...
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