Alright Raider Nation welcome in to my preview of the upcoming 2014 Free Agency period for the Raiders. Obviously we all know that the free agency period is like every NFL team's Black Friday and starting tomorrow, it's big spending time for all 32 teams on the unrestricted free agent market.
So far during the offseason, the Raiders have made little coaching changes, particularly on the defensive backs position, so I want to give a late welcome to coaches Joe Woods and Marcus Robertson. Both coaches were recruited from the NFC North with Woods coming in from the Minnesota Vikings, coaching under Leslie Frazier and Marcus Robertson came the Detroit Lions, serving under the recently fired Lion head coach, Jim Schwartz.
Prior to the upcoming free agency period, Raiders re-signed Taiwan Jones to a 3 year contract extension. Good move on McKenzie's part because Jones was our bright spot on special teams and thrived into the gunner role really well and hopefully Jones tries out at the now wide open running back position since we signed CFL Grey Cup MVP, Kory Sheets as a camp body to start the preseason. Aside from Sheets, another notable camp body the Raiders also is QB, Trent Edwards. If you're not familiar with Edwards, he joined the Raiders as a camp body before in 2011 and I can just say welcome back and hope McGloin or Pryor can learn a thing or two from them. Raiders have also tendered 6 exclusive rights free agents, among them are safety Brandian Ross, Chimdi Chekwa, Jamize Olawale, and Kaelin Burnett, although I read that Brandian Ross is the only confirmed exclusive rights FA that was signed.
So where to start, finally the Raiders have the money to spend on solid free agent players. McKenzie and Dennis Allen had 2 years to endure from salary cap hell, now they can start signing their guys. Basically this is it for both Reggie and Dennis, no more excuses, it's either put up or shut up in this year's offseason period. So that's the good news, the bad news is, the Raiders didn't use the franchise tag on either Lamarr Houston or Jared Veldheer. That adds a little more pressure because for sure a lot of teams are going to offer both free agents, big money and a big contract.
If I had to choose between the two on who's the top priority to resign for the Raiders, I'd probably put my priority on re-signing Veldheer. Yeah Veldheer was injured the majority of last season, but aside from Stefen Wisniewski, Veldheer has been our constant on the offensive line. When he's healthy, he can solidly shut down on a team's top pass rusher and we've been missing that last season since he went down during the preseason. Other than that, in my opinion, Veldheer should be our top priority to re-sign, he missed the majority of last season, but we already saw the impact with his absence, since Khalif Barnes couldn't match wits with the league's top tier pass rushers. By the way I forgot to mention, Barnes re-signed with the Raiders also, I mean I'm tired of the Raiders hanging onto him, but now I realize him coming back, I'm not too mad at it as I used to be because he provides that depth on the offensive line anyway.
As a whole, there are three priorities the Raiders have to address during this free agency period: offensive line, defensive line, players who can make a big play and can mentor the younger receivers or running backs. Defensive line wise, if we tend to lose Houston, I thought Carolina's Greg Hardy would provide a big upgrade over him, but since Hardy agreed to the franchise tender, highly unlikely we get him. We need guys who can get to the quarterback and can wreck the interior because the defensive line was outright atrocious and our linebackers and secondary have been getting burned. It wouldn't hurt to go after someone older like a Jared Allen, we don't know how many mileage he has, but he can be that veteran leader up front, what the Raiders have been lacking last season since we didn't bring back Richard Seymour (and rightfully so). Defensive line is what I'm looking at for the Raiders to fill this season and they can bring in a few serviceable offensive linemen to beef up o-line depth. For big play players, if we're going to build our offense around a young quarterback like Pryor, McGloin, or anybody in the draft whether it'd be David Carr or Johnny Manziel (I hope not), we need somebody like a Jeremy Maclin, a Pierre Garcon, or a Hakeem Nicks to be that guide and reliable target for the young QB to go to. It wouldn't hurt to bring in a veteran back up. All this talk about Michael Vick to the Raiders campaign, I love it as a pipe dream, but will Vick accept that mentorship role to tutor the QBs, especially tutoring Terrelle Pryor? Personally, I think Vick going to Oakland would be good for Pryor, but if we're looking to a more traditional pocket passer QB, we'd have to go with a Josh McCown or another capable backup QB.
Which free agents do I want to see brought back? Rashad Jennings, Tracy Porter, and Charles Woodson. I'm done with Darren McFadden, I would be shocked if he accepted a lesser role and re-signed for cheap (he wants big money when in fact he hasn't played 1 full season), I think Jennings has played his heart out to earn a contract extension and it puts up more competition at the running back position. Tracy Porter and Charles Woodson, just their presence alone, particularly with C-Wood, you can see the secondary playing with heart at times, C-Wood is a fan favorite in Oakland, why would the Raiders not bring him back to finish out his career permanently? Porter, he's had his ups and downs last season, but he's been our decent nickel corner and with DJ Hayden coming back healthy, he can learn a lot if the Raiders bring back C-Wood and Porter in the secondary.
Overall, it's going to be interesting to see what approach McKenzie takes tomorrow. Like I said, this is it, we've deconstructed everything the last 2 years, now we can finally start building from the ground up. If McKenzie makes boneheaded moves or overpays and coach Allen can't get the team to improve, they'll be hearing it from us I can tell you that. I'll be looking forward to the free agency period, be sure to keep track on it here on the blog as I'll update it constantly on one post on who signed and my comments on the signing. I'll see you guys later.
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