Fantasy Football

Well, the good news is they didn’t finish in last place in the division. The bad news is they only had to win 3 games to avoid it and their still without any sort of legitimate offense, an above average defense that has seen its apex and a slew of talented running backs who are rendered mediocre because they have no line and no passing game protecting them. If this all seems familiar it’s because this has been the state of Raider nation since Rich Gannon retired, or whatever it is flash-in-the-pants quarterbacks do when their run of good fortune ends.

To the Raiders credit, they did manage five wins in 2009, two more than the required three to stay out of the AFC West cellar, which is the second most decrepit cellar to be in (congrats, Chiefs!). But even the rival they bested seems to have more hope than the Oakland, and its been roughly five years with the same song and pony show. They seem unwilling to comply with the natural order of things, mainly because of so many regrettable high first round draft picks they have money invested in. Robert Gallery, JaMarcus Russell, Darren McFadden (so far, but even if he turns into a pro-bowler he’s still unnecessary) and even Michael Huff, who’s turned out to be an effective DB but they took him over Jay Cutler and Mat Leinart (whom we’re still not convinced is a bust).

If you’re keeping count, that’s their last four first overall picks. Even with parity, you can’t rebuild while whiffing that many times on top ten picks that you heavily invest in. Not to mention all the embarrassingly simple logic that motivated all these picks. They knew they were trading Randy Moss the year they had the first overall pick, so why not A) get more for him than a fourth rounder and B) draft Calvin Johnson because you need to replace a receiver and he was the only sure thing in that draft, or C) Even if you are trading Randy Moss and don’t want to simply fill his void, beef up on the offensive line with Joe Thomas.

Might be wise to get him some more carries.

Both Johnson and Thomas were more worthy of a first overall pick than JaMarcus Russell, a guy who made his bones by running up the score on Notre Dame in a bowl game. Mind you, Russell had talent on each end stretching to both sidelines while that Notre Dame defense is probably the worst to ever grace the field of a BCS bowl game. That’s not hyperbole, that’s an honest assessment and an embarrassing one for the Raiders. That said — this is an unpopular sentiment — I actually thought Russell started to demonstrate signs of growth towards the end of 2008, but as improved as his last three weeks were, they’re only so confidence inspiring.

Anyway, things didn’t get much better in 2009 when they decided to take Derrius Heyward-Bey out of Maryland over four other fathomable options (Michael Crabtree being the most notable, but also Maclin, Harvin and Nicks), something Bey simply wasn’t. So what can we expect out of Oakland? Amazingly, improvement. But no playoffs. Really, every team with the exception of Denver should improve in 2009.

Can’t Miss (for what one could reasonably expect): None. Absolutely none of their players are surefire fantasy hopefuls. For where Id’ be forced to take them, I’d draft the third receiver on the Cardinals before I draft anyone on the Raiders.

Tread Lightly: Just based on how fantasy football works, JaMarcus Russell isn’t a suitable player to draft when you take into consideration he’s been unproductive so far and they brought in Jeff Garcia’s decomposing body to for clipboard holding duties (which seems to indicate Russell’s team is starting to lose faith in him). If you’re league has 14+ teams in it, you can probably justify him as a backup. Otherwise I think it’s best to look elsewhere despite three games of encouraging play.

Dark Horses: Say what you will about him (like I just did), but Heyward-Bey has the opportunity to be the best receiver on this team in his rookie season. His only real competition for the title is Javon Walker, whose career was sort of ruined by Brett Favre and the Packers (and various bizarre off-the-field…situations. Both of which he was the victim rather than the perpetrator). Also, you’re probably getting great value with any of their running backs. Specifically Darren McFadden, who has pro-bowl potential but has yet to get the carries to prove it. Also: the defense, Zach Miller & Javon Walker.

What you may have noticed about our breakdown is that they’re about twice as many words in the “dark horses” category as the other two combined, and since JaMarcus Russell lies in the “tread lightly” portion of the preview you could preclude that the season is riding on their QB. Like just about every other team in the NFL. Congrats, Oakland Raiders! You’ve made the leap from being woefully inefficient and inept to just slightly below average, like most teams in the league. Welcome to the herd, gentlemen. And to think, you could be a playoff team had you drafted with a little more foresight.

Tomorrow: the flashiest team in the midwest, the Kansas City Chiefs.