The Oakland Raiders had yet another rough year and following another poor draft, there isn't much hope for them to turn it around any time soon. It looks like another long year in Raider land. Vegas odds currently have the Oakland Raiders at +2500 to win the AFC West and +15000 to win the 2015 Super Bowl. Let’s take a quick look at the , along with their 2014 Schedule.
Last year the Raiders offense was ranked 24th in scoring, at 20.1 ppg, while also ranking 23rd in total yards (333.8 ypg), 24th in passing (208.8 ypg) and 12th in rushing (125.0 ypg). Obviously te Raiders were not very good on offense last year and a big reason was inconsistency at the QB spot. Well the Raiders hope they have solved that problem by picking up Matt Schaub from Houston and as long has he learns to throw TD passes to his own teammates and not the opponents then he could help stabilize this position for the Raiders. The Raiders did draft David Carr from Fresno State but he will not be much help to the team this year. Schaub was given a solid weapon in James Jones from Green Bay, but will be effective catching passes from Schab like he was catching them from Rodgers? I don’t think so. The Running game is set with the McFadden, who should have a solid year and the recent signing of Maurice-Jones Drew, but still the OL is not very could and that should stunt the whole growth of this offense. Maybe a bit better than last year’s offense, but not by a whole lot, especially if Schaub starts throwing TD passes to his opponents.
Defensively the Raiders ranked 29th in points allowed (28.3 ppg), 22nd in yards allowed (363.7 ypg), 28th vs the pass (255.8 ypg) and 13th vs the run (107.9 ypg). As you can see this defense was not very good last year, but help is on the way in the form of LB Khalil Mack (Buffalo) who lead the MAC last year with 10.5 sacks a year ago. Mack was the first of 6 defensive players chosen in the draft by the Raiders, who also added Justin Tuck and Lamar Woodley via free agency, but both those players are past their primes so the question will be how much will they help this team. Antonio Smith was brought in to help the DL and Charles Woodson is also back, but both of those players are in their declining years as well. This is an old defense and even though they looked to add depth during the Draft, there isn’t much immediate help for this defense other than Mack. The LB corps is very solid, but the DL and secondary will struggle once again. This defense will not scare many offenses this year.
The Raiders are still not a very good team and their posted win total of 4.5 proves that. The Offense will still have problems putting up points and a defense that is aging will have many problems stopping teams. The draft did produce Khalil Mack for them, but other than he and Matt Shaub, not much else has been done to upgrade the team. That is really bad considering the fact that they will be taking on the toughest schedule in the league this year. I really don’t see this team topping the 4.5 wins that have been posted for them. 4-12 is the best they can do.
2014 Oakland Raiders Schedule
Sept. 7 at New York Jets, 1
Sept. 14 Houston Texans, 4:25
Sept. 21 at New England Patriots, 1
Sept. 28 Miami Dolphins (London), 1
Oct. 5 BYE
Oct. 12 San Diego Chargers, 4:05
Oct. 19 Arizona Cardinals, 4:25
Oct. 26 at Cleveland Browns, 4:25
Nov. 2 at Seattle Seahawks, 4:25
Nov. 9 Denver Broncos, 4:05
Nov. 16 at San Diego Chargers, 4:05
Nov. 20 Kansas City Chiefs (Thu), 8:25
Nov. 30 at St. Louis Rams, 1
Dec. 7 San Francisco 49ers, 4:25
Dec. 14 at Kansas City Chiefs, 1
Dec. 21 Buffalo Bills, 4:25
Dec. 28 at Denver Broncos, 4:25
Info Gathered From CBS Sports & Fox Sports
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