[whoman69]

Originally Posted by TheNextStep

I'm absolutely thrilled with it.
Yes, you can say "but they didn't get any defense" but I'd say two things to that:
1. You guys didn't watch all the games that I did so you really don't know how many f***ing times we went 3 and out on offense and left our defense on the field for seriously extended periods of time. Having an offense that should be able to sustain a drive will help the defense.
2. The Raiders aren't done. It has only been day one of free agency. Rumors are already out there that the Raiders are bringing in Ed Jasper (DT, Falcons) on Monday and have their sights set on Andre Dyson (CB, Tennessee) and Morlon Greenwood (OLB, Dolphins). I'm confident that there will be more looks than just that, too, including more after June 1st, when perhaps a 3-4 linebacker like Sam Cowart stands a good possibility of being cut.
As for the salary cap, it isn't really that much of an issue. People always tell me "Ha ha, the Raiders don't have any cap room" and the simple fact of the matter is that they always end up being wrong. John Clayton has literally run a "Raiders against the cap and it is time to panic" article every year for the past 6 years. Literally, for the past 6 years. He has yet to be right.
If free agency ended tomorrow and these were the ONLY moves that we'd made, I would obviously have serious concerns about our defense... but there's a whole lot of off-season ahead of us to address that. As for how they started? Man, I couldn't be happier.

I thought that as well a few years ago about the time on the field for the defense. A couple years ago the Chiefs seemingly tried to score a TD everytime they had the ball. Just the same as a three and out if you score too quick. But the Chiefs can pound the ball as well and cut down on three and outs and the defense still sucked. At some point you just have to look at the players. The Raiders got too old and had noone in the wings.
The salary cap will be an issue because Moss and Woodson take up so much room. Sure you can get a guy like Gannon to take a cut because he lost his starting job and is near the end of his career. But are you going to have luck getting other guys to stick their necks out for a 5 win team? The good players on the team are not going to want to take one for the team if they think the team is going nowhere. Davis will threaten to cut them, but with the losing situation right now, that might be an empty threat. They can't afford to cut what little talent they have, so the threat is useless.