Al Davis ran the Oakland Raiders his way for decades, but when Reggie McKenzie was hired things had to change. The Raiders hadn’t been successful under Davis’ leadership in a decade—or for the better part of the salary cap era.

One thing the team has maintained to some degree is Davis’ value of secrecy. The team might be less paranoid and friendlier with the media, but the organization isn’t doing a lot of extra interviews with the national media.

The Raiders are also the only team in the AFC West that will not have cameras in their war room.

This secrecy has left the Raider Nation with a much larger pool of potential prospects to understand than the two fanbases drafting first and second overall. We don’t know what is going to happen in the draft, but the first two picks are much easier to peg than the one for the Raiders.

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The Kansas City Chiefs have the No. 1 overall pick on Thursday when the 2013 NFL draft gets underway, but the situation with left tackle Branden Albert is still unresolved. While Albert may not impact the Chiefs’ draft plans, an inability to trade him might present an interesting catch-22.

If the Chiefs select a left tackle with the first pick, they would have two left tackles on the roster. One of them would be paid $9.8 million guaranteed in 2013 and the other would be the No. 1 overall pick. Realistically, the Chiefs would have to trade Albert or play their top pick at right tackle. Albert’s long-term earning potential would take a hit if he agreed to move to the right side.

The Miami Dolphins were the only team to receive permission to negotiate with Albert’s agent, but Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports reported that a deal is only going to happen if he lowers his demands significantly. It is widely believed the Chiefs would get a second-round draft pick if the Dolphins and Albert could come to an agreement.

Things could change during the draft, but there are currently very few teams with the cap space to absorb Albert’s franchise tag. According to overthecap.com, only nine teams currently have the cap space to absorb $9.8 million, which means a long-term contract will probably have to be pounded out before any other team will be able to land Albert.

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If the San Diego Chargers were filling out a depth chart on Thursday, they would have to lightly pencil in King Dunlap at left tackle and Jeromey Clary at right tackle. There’s no secret that the Chargers would like to add a blue-chip left tackle to the depth chart in bold blue ink with Dunlap and Clary penciled in on the right side.

If you watched only the playoffs last year, Bryant McKinnie of the Baltimore Ravens was one of those blue chippers. If you watched the regular season, McKinnie wasn’t worth a dime because he was barely on the field.

The Chargers are having “a couple general discussions” with the free-agent left tackle, according to Michael Gehlken of U-T San Diego, but they shouldn’t even be considering him.

In fact, the Chargers should stay as far away from McKinnie as possible.

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The Broncos are sniffing around a couple of the late-round prospects at the quarterback position. Zac Dysert out of Miami was in for a visit and Matt Scott out of Arizona is also scheduled for an appointment (via Denver Post). One visit might not indicate anything, but two visits is the start of a trend. Whether it's Dysert, Scott or someone else, the Broncos could be considering adding another quarterback in the draft.

If the Broncos were confident in Brock Osweiler’s ability to take over for an injured Peyton Manning and take the reins in a couple years, why bring in a young quarterback? A third quarterback is a waste of roster space, and no teams are rushing to sign a guy like Caleb Hanie, who was released prior to the start of free agency. 

Guys like Dysert and Scott will be drafted, so it’s not like the Broncos are stretching out Collin Klein or Dayne Crist. Depending on the projection, Dysert and Scott will go between rounds three and five. The fact that the Broncos have this level of interest in mid-round quarterbacks has to be a little concerning since the team used a second-round pick on Osweiler last year.

As long as Manning is under center, none of this matters. However, if Manning were to get hurt, the Broncos could still be competitive with a below-average NFL quarterback. That could be Osweiler or a veteran, but the Broncos are opening up the possibility that it could be someone else.

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The Oakland Raiders aren’t dancing around the issue. After the team traded for quarterback Matt Flynn and shipped Carson Palmer to the desert, head coach Dennis Allen said the Raiders absolutely felt like they got better.

The only way that’s possible is if a quarterback with two career starts is better than the one with 121 career starts. That seems totally crazy at face value, because Palmer isn’t a bad quarterback and Flynn is unproven. You could find many people arguing that the Raiders actually got worse with the quarterback change. Of course, there’s a lot more here than meets the eye.

Flynn can make the Raiders better in three very different ways. If he turns into a franchise quarterback, the Raiders will be better off than having the average Palmer. If Flynn himself is an average starter, then he will buy the Raiders time to find a franchise quarterback at a fraction of the cost of Palmer. If Flynn is a total disaster, the Raiders will likely have their choice of a quarterback in the 2014 NFL draft.

The nice thing about Flynn is that he can be anywhere from amazing to terrible and he still makes the Raiders better in the long term. In the short term, Flynn can also be better than Palmer based on a couple of key factors.

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The Oakland Raiders have a lot of needs and there’s no sense sugarcoating it. A lack of top talent has led many to refer to Oakland’s roster as the worst in football. Although the Raiders are at least a couple years away from being contenders, it’s too early to judge the 2013 roster. After all, you wouldn’t judge a house under construction that doesn’t have running water, electricity or a roof.

Essential pieces of the puzzle are missing in Oakland and the Raiders haven’t had the draft picks or the salary cap space to get them. The Raiders signing of players like Mike Jenkins (team announced) and Andre Carter (confirmed by Ian Rapoport of NFL.com) are just examples of the Raiders buying lumber.

It’s not the most important or the most expensive, but even the finest materials are still just covering a bunch of unsexy two-by-fours. Framing is one of the least expensive and most essential parts of building a house. Everything fits around the frame and that’s why all these bargain signings could pay off for the Raiders.

Unlike last year, the Raiders have had the resources to sign younger players. The average age of the players McKenzie has signed is 27.6 years-old. The only player to over the age of 30 that was given a multi-year deal was linebacker Kevin Burnett and the Raiders can easily release him after one season with minimal impact (via spotrac.com figures).

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The largest roster purge in franchise history was completed on Friday when The Oakland Raiders finally waived disgruntled linebacker Rolando McClain. The move was expected since early in the season when McClain was demoted to a two-down linebacker.

After McClain was suspended for two games for conduct detrimental to the team last December for getting into an argument with head coach Dennis Allen, his release was almost assured. The Raiders waited to release McClain presumably because of salary cap implications.

General manager Reggie McKenzie has effectively blown up the entire roster in Oakland in one offseason. Only 10 of 22 starters remain with the team from last year.

The departures include Richard Seymour, Carson Palmer, Tommy Kelly, Michael Huff, Matt Shaughnessy, Desmond Bryant, Phillip Wheeler, Dave Tollefson, Shane Lechler and Darrius Heyward-Bey.

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The San Diego Chargers signed King Dunlap, but the preference would be that he take over at right tackle for Jeromey Clary and not have to protect Phillip Rivers’ blind side. Rebuilding the offensive line remains a top priority in San Diego and Lane Johnson has been penciled in as the pick at No. 11 for months.

Unfortunately for the Chargers, Johnson’s stock has been skyrocketing because of all the moves in free agency. At least five teams in the top half of the draft have a shaky situation at left tackle. If two of the three prospects go off the board early, there could be a bidding war for the third.

Tom Telesco’s first really tough decision as general manager could be deciding how much they would be willing to give up to get Johnson. Projecting the draft can be tough even for NFL teams, so the Chargers have to account for every contingency if it looks like Johnson will not fall to No. 11.

Contingency Plan No. 1: Trade Up

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