The Oakland Raiders’ 2017 first round draft pick Gareon Conley continues to steal off-the-field related headlines. So much, in fact, that Raider Nation began to worry when Conley was signed to a team contract under his allotted rookie deal before absolving a lingering court matter.
The NFL Pre-Season officially kicked off this past week; the first taste of real football to trigger the fans around the world into a frenzy. For the next three weeks, the media coverage will tap into their crystal ball of power rankings, win-loss predictions and forecasting individual performance award nominees. It is nearly impossible for Raider Nation to resist after years of pre-season prediction coverage delegated to failures.
Now should we “sip the kool-aid” of Super Bowl contender status? Before you settle on that matter, take a look at a parallel I have noticed between the upcoming 2017 Oakland Raiders and the 2009 New Orleans who went on to win a Super Bowl contender.
The Raiders biggest offensive positional weakness in 2016 was the tight end group. Considering the overall success of the offense as a whole, it will be an area to watch for improvements thru the Oakland Raiders 2017 training camp carefully.
We’ve all had our calendars marked for quite some time now, but rest assure Fantasy Football season is here. The mumblings around the office coffee pots across the country has shifted to; clever FF league names, sneaky sleepers and draft values. Before you accept too many league invitations and squander the FF mock draft boards, first let’s acknowledge the year three explosion from Oakland Raiders wide receiver; Amari Cooper.
The Oakland Raiders 2017 Training Camp started with a league wide shocking report. Pro Bowl starting left tackle Donald Penn is holding out amidst a contractual dispute. In addition to Penn’s controversial decision, the team’s first round pick, Gareon Conley, got some good news as his legal drama might start to get behind him.
Carr and Mack are the perfect game closing duo as team captains. From the locker room to the huddle, every player has faith in the duos ability to win under any circumstance. That’s a powerful tool for a team that has a challenging 2017 schedule. With a coach earning the fan title “Black Jack” Del Rio for showing his willingness to take risks late in games because of them, it’s hard ever to count the Raiders out. It doesn’t also hurt to have one of the leagues all-time best kickers in Sebastian Janikowski on the sideline, a trio perhaps?
The Oakland Raiders 2016 defensive line was incredibly inconsistent as a group; even though it had NFL superstar and Defensive Player of the Year Khalil Mack (hybrid outside linebacker and defensive end), who finished with 11 sacks, the Raiders finished dead last in the NFL with 25.
Quite early for Peters to post bulletin board material as the teams won’t meet until October 19th for a Week 7 “Thursday Night Football” showdown under the lights of primetime television. The long-time rivals have found a newly competitive distaste for one another as both teams haven’t been as talented or league-wide successful in quite some time.
Of all the positional groups heading into The Oakland Raiders 2017 season, it’s hard to ignore the potential of the stable of running backs. This was an unproven group prior to the 2016 season with former Raider Latavius Murray being their only experienced back at the time. That year, Murray faced minimal competition before he earned the starting role. The battles for the depth was settled among added 5th round draft pick DeAndre Washington, (Legendary Raider George Atkinson’s son) George Atkinson III and an unknown UDFA in Jalen Richard. Despite some highlight reel moments from Atkinson III, the retention of promising camp back Jalen Richard sealed Atkinson’s tenure with the Raiders.
The Oakland Raiders have one of the more star-studded NFL rosters heading into 2017. Last year, the Raiders had 7 Pro Bowl nominations turning heads around the league with elite talent on both sides of the ball. Â
General manager Reggie McKenzie shuffled the roster thru various personnel transactions during the off-season which has resulted in the most competitive camp roster depth in nearly 15 years. The big names dominate the headlines, but what players are not being talked about that can fill critical roles on this team?
