Oakland Raiders 2005 Preview

By John Onan  |   Friday, August 05, 2005  |  Comments( 0 )

Oakland Raiders
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Its pretty cut and dry for Norv Turner's Oakland Raiders in 2005; plenty of offensive weapons, not enough talent on defense. The acquisition of wide receiver Randy Moss was the big off-season move. Moss will fit in perfectly with the Raiders' bad boy image, but if the defense doesn't step it up a notch you'll be looking at some Arena Football scores.

Strengths: Kerry Collins will be the man this season, now that Rich Gannon has moved up to the broadcast booth, and he'll have two major weapons on the outside in Moss and Jerry Porter. The Oakland Raiders will throw the ball downfield early and often. But this season, they've also added the first real running threat that the team has had in years in former Jet LaMont Jordan.

Jordan averaged an impressive 5.2 yards per carry last season as a backup for Curtis Martin, and could very well come close to those numbers again with opposing defenses concentrating their efforts on containing Oakland's All-Pro receivers. However, the offensive line in front of Jordan will need to improve on opening holes.

The offensive line should improve with health and the emergence of second-year men Jake Grove and Robert Gallery. Grove will be switching back to his natural position at center. An injury to Frank Middleton forced the team to move Grove over to guard, where he looked out of sorts.

Special teams could also be a strength depending on who returns kicks. The kicking game is considered very solid with Sebastian Janakowski and Shane Lechler handling the kicking and punting duties, respectively.

Weaknesses: The defense is a totally different story. DTs Warren Sapp and Ted Washington were both disappointing free agent signings. Teams ran the ball continuously against the Oakland Raiders front and just wore those big guys out late in games. The team didn't do much to upgrade the D in the off season, unless cleaning house is considered an upgrade.

Derrick Burgess was brought over from Philadelphia in hopes that he can add some sort of pass rush. As a team, the Raiders only tallied 25 sacks in the entire 2004 season. They must put more pressure on opposing quarterbacks or their secondary will be exposed badly.

Speaking of the secondary, it's basically Charles Woodson and a bunch of other guys. Nnamdi Asomugha will battle two rookies, Fabian Washington and Stanford Routt, for the other starting CB spot. Phillip and Ray Buchanan were both run out of Oakland by defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, son of 46-defense originator Buddy Ryan. As of the start of training camp, Ryan hasn't decided whether to go back to using a 4-3, or continue to tinker with a 3-4 defense. We could see both this year. Why not the Buddy Ryan's 46?

The safety position is a mess, with various rookies and vets competing for spots. If the mediocrity continues, the Raiders D will see lots of 3 and 4 receiver sets. You could see quite a few wide receivers running free in the secondary all year.

Also, Danny Clark and former Texan Jay Foreman are solid but not game changing linebackers. It will be interesting to see how the linebacker situation shakes out, depending on what defensive alignment Ryan decides on.

The Oakland Raiders will be looking to improve on their inability to stop teams on third down and in the red zone. They ranked near the bottom of the league in both categories.

Overall: It will be an entertaining season in Oakland, watching Collins hook up with Randy Moss and Jerry Porter downfield. I'm wondering if we'll see any Collins/Moss spats like we did when the talented receiver was in Minnesota with Daunte Culpepper. Moss doesn't always realize that there's only one football to distribute.

It should also be fun to see a couple 41-38 shootouts because the Oakland Raiders should be giving up points as fast as they score. If the defense plays decent, Oakland could be heading back to the playoffs for the first time since their Super Bowl run in 2002. Better hope they have the ball last. I see 7-9 in 2005 for Al Davis bad boys.
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