There was a time when the Raiders had former linebackers holding the titles of general manager, head coach and defensive coordinator. Yet, during the tenures of Reggie McKenzie, Jack Del Rio and Ken Norton Jr., the Silver & Black’s lack of quality talent at the linebacker position was mind-numbing. All three of those gentlemen played
Raiders will find out quickly if linebacker conundrum lingers
The telling signs is against teams with potent pass games: Saints, Chiefs and Bucs, now with Brady.
-Can Raiders LBs cover a TE singularly with a LB?
-Can Raiders LBs cover a RB coming out of the backfield for a pass?
-Can Raiders LBs run “sideline to sideline” in pursuit? Does team speed improve?
We will see.
The encouraging signs are: Cory Littleton is among the best coverage linebackers in the league. It remains to be seen how Kwiatkoski holds up in his first full season as a starter. But, he looked the part last season. As mentioned before, it’s bound to be much better than when the Raiders fielded the likes of LaMarr Woodley, Curtis Lofton and Tahir Whitehead.
Let’s be honest, that’s starting from a really low baseline. They could be pretty awful and still look better than that list of no hopers!
The measure for the whole D should be to get into the middle of the NFL pack (at least) overall. We have scudded along at the bottom for far too long and everybody knows the problems we have had against good TEs, as Ghost says.
Let’s aim for significant improvement, not settle for slightly less ineptitude….
One word: Joyner . . . he was going to be a huge improvement last year and then, they played the games.
There is a reason free agents become free agents . . . I’m gonna be cautiously optimistic with a dash of skepticism until I see the product on the field!
At least we took a swing at trying to improve the LB spots.
I agree with Michelle, there is a reason FA’s are FA’s.
But there are times when teams just can pay everyone too.
I have to give Mayock the benefit of the doubt, he and Gruden seem to know what kind of players they want and have made an effort to find them. I really hope our new LBs are great signings.