TrueRaiderLaker Productions is NOT Dead

 

Raider Nation...it's been 7 LONG YEARS! And did I miss this feeling of editing hype videos for you all! It's been such an emotional road to get back to this feeling since I released The Oakland Raiders: Endgame back in 2019. If you're ever wondering did I ever consider uploading another Raiders hype video the following year? To answer shortly: yes. During their first season in Las Vegas, I had something planned, but I never went through with it. Not to bring up 2020 again, but that year has impacted my life trajectory a lot and I wasn't in the right state of mind to edit another Raider hype video or any videos of that matter at that time. Probably the earliest that I was considering a return was 2024, but I've been preoccupied elsewhere with a very busy professional career. Also admittedly, it was bitter sweet to see the Raiders move out of Oakland and California entirely. So it probably wasn't the right time for me to edit another video until I get over my own 5 Stages of Grief as a Raider fan from the Bay Area before finally accepting that they have a sustainable home in Las Vegas, free from the tomfoolery of Oakland politics and their now former Coliseum MLB co-tenants, the A’s. I will be frank, I wasn’t happy with my last two Raiders hype videos. Besides the obvious reasons with the whole Khalil Mack trade in 2018 and Antonio Brown’s crashout fiasco in 2019, it was mostly poor planning on my end and just waiting until August to gather even though looking back at the edits, there were some things I was happy about. But I was running on fumes to get those videos out there before the start of the opener. Luckily both times, the Raiders were playing on Monday Night Football.

But for this project, I made sure to learn from those mistakes and plan this ahead. Because I was roadmapping this project since the beginning of February at the same time Klint Kubiak was hired as the Head Coach. I took into consideration the scenarios that the Raiders were in position to do. They had the #1 pick and in position to draft Fernando Mendoza. At the same time, Maxx Crosby is on the trade block. There’s rumors that Derek Carr might un-retire and join them. I drew up all these scenarios to make sure there was a Plan A, a Plan B, and a Plan C. Just like in football, you have a play call dialed up. But the opposing defense is giving you a different look at the line of scrimmage, so you gotta know when to call an audible and change to a different play to throw the defense off. If you’re wondering with all the cryptic “My Casino Business Plan” posts in the last few months, that was the secret codename that I named this project as. Haha. Considering it has been awhile and nobody knew. Not even my inner circle who are Raider fans and know that I made hype videos in the past knew that I was making a video in secret. They floated this idea that it was the perfect time and I’ve constantly denied I was making a hype video and I was making an original video to check out: “My Casino Business Plan.” I’ve been dropping a lot of hints on the video on my YouTube Community channel, posting images of John (Spytek) Cena, C(K)lint (Kubiak) Eastwood, Captain Kirk (Cousins), T.J. Maxx (Crosby), The (Jackson) 5, Austin (Powers), Magic (Johnson), Brock (Bowers) Lesnar, Ashton (Jeanty) Kutcher, etc. I wasn’t sure how much of the secret I gave away at that time that this was ultimately my first Raiders hype video in 7 years. And now, the secret is finally out of the bag to unveil this project that I’ve been working on for the past 6 months. So best kept secret? Or worst best kept secret? I’ll leave that up to you to decide. I had a great pool of trailer music for this project. Ranging Hi Finesse to Audiomachine, two music productions whose scores I used in my previous Raiders "From the Ashes" and "Endgame" hype videos back in 2017 and 2019. But this score in particular from Twelve Titans Music, I felt very strongly about and it resonated with the new culture that the Raiders are trying to build slowly and steadily under John Spytek and Klint Kubiak coupled by the near-perfect offseason, bringing in guys like Tyler Linderbaum, Nakobe Dean, Quay Walker, Kirk Cousins, drafting Mendoza #1, and somehow still keeping Maxx Crosby on the team! Of course, we still have some holes that the team didn’t address. But we gotta remember the old saying that “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. This roster is good enough to at the very least keep the Raiders competitive in games. This offseason is more so about bringing in players who buy into Spytek and Kubiak’s vision and want to contribute to resetting the culture of the Raiders away from its recent losing past. There will be growing pains this season because everything is new again. But trust we finally have a direction from this organization that will trend them upwards on a course for long-term, sustainable success. And I feel this video has captured this theme. Then again, we’ve sung this song every year and it hasn’t worked out. But the carousel has to stop at some point. Safe to say, we’re at a good start. You can’t ask for anything better in a culture reset by hiring a Super Bowl-winning OC as the Head Coach and drafting a Heisman Trophy winner and National Champion at #1 as the future franchise QB. If you read this far or TLDR, simply put: the hype is back and there is a "Culture Shift" brewing! Enjoy and go Raiders!

Oh yeah, and I will be in Vegas in Week 1.

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Maxx'd Out

Update 3/10: BALTIMORE BACKED OUT!?!?!? This offseason's crazy.

We can now move on.

The Raiders have been quite the subject of discussion during this offseason. They have #1 overall pick in the NFL draft, which in all likelihood they will take Heisman/Natty-winning QB, Fernando Mendoza. After the Super Bowl, they went ahead and hired without question the hottest candidate in the coaching market, Super Bowl-winning Offensive Coordinator, Klint Kubiak (whom I was 100% onboard in bringing in). They have a lot cap room to go out and spend in free agency. Everything is aligned for the Raiders to fully rebuild and potentially change the culture for the better.

Except there was one big elephant in the room. It was not a matter of if, but a matter of when. And in the dead of this past Friday night, the Raiders did the thing. They traded away Maxx Crosby to the Baltimore Ravens two first round picks: one for this year at #14 overall and another for 2027.

We've all seen this movie before 7 years ago when the Raiders traded away Khalil Mack to the Chicago Bears in the midst of a contract tussle between both parties. This is the sequel. Another example of the Raiders giving away a generational defensive superstar.

But the thing is that this sequel didn't hurt as much as the first movie. Mack getting traded away hurt my soul because it came out of nowhere a few days before the start of the 2018 NFL Season. (I still to this day haven't forgiven Jon Gruden about that). This one, you were prepared for the inevitable breakup. Because Maxx made it known that he wanted out since the Raiders shut him down for the "Tank Bowl" against the New York Giants. And he made it known he wanted to compete now rather than go through another rebuilding phase. So, the noises were loud and clear. And when it got too loud, John Spytek and the Raiders decided to turn it down with this trade.

If anything, this trade is a win-win for both teams. Maxx gets to go to a contender. The Ravens are still a talented team with an established QB in Lamar Jackson, they have Derrick Henry, some pieces on defense, and a new head coach to bring them new blood. So they still have an established core there and they see Maxx as the missing piece. 

The Raiders, as much as it sucks to say, they're hitting the reset button again. But this is by design. Maxx Crosby staying on the team won't bring much benefit as he doesn't fit the timeline. The Raiders are clearly planning to build around Ashton Jeanty, Brock Bowers, and potentially Fernando Mendoza. They are without question going to be the new faces of the franchise moving forward with Klint Kubiak at the helm to help unlock their full potential. And Kubiak in the combine mentioned that they're switching their defensive scheme to a 3-4 defense and Maxx's fit in the new scheme was highly questioned because he's not the prototypical 3-4 defensive end. 

By trading away Crosby, they get more draft capital and more cap space. With the #1 overall pick #14 pick to go with picks at the top of each round, the Raiders have a chance to accelerate their rebuild. Which is easier said than done because the Raiders have been notorious in blowing their draft picks, reaching for underwhelming talent or finding diamonds in the rough but wasting them away. This is going to be a very important year for Spytek and Kubiak to lay down the vision for the Raiders to finally get the ship right.

Losing a talent like Maxx Crosby still hurts. One of our greatest pitfalls as fans of a team is that we get emotionally connected to a player that devotes his loyalty to the team and consistently performs at a high level night in and night out. And that perfectly describes Maxx Crosby. It's mind-blowing to think he's one of the few last remaining Oakland Raiders on the roster. Of course, they still have Kolton Miller and could possibly bring back Daniel Carlson and AJ Cole and maybe they bring back Alec Ingold from free agency. But Maxx is like the last standout superstar from the Oakland era. And losing a talent like him hurts. But some of us will be rooting for him. He has a chance for a ring. And hope he has a lot of success in Baltimore, just not against the Raiders.

As for the Raiders, this is the second time they pulled this. By any means, should they ensure this does NOT happen a third time. But we all can move on now and usher in a new era. With a Super Bowl-winning coach as the Head Coach and a Heisman and National Champion franchise QB potentially on the way in the draft, the Raiders can't ask for a better head start in the rebuilding phase. At this point, we just have to trust the process and hope that this team finally gets it right.