Oakland Raiders: Should They Address the Center Position with the 2nd Rd Pick?

The Oakland Raiders' greatest need is within the interior line.

With the departure of Robert Gallery, the Raiders best offensive lineman, and the subpar play of left guard Cooper Carlyle, the Raiders are in need of a Gallery replacement.

Though many within the Raider Nation harp on Penn State center Stefen Wisniewski, I reject the notion for a few reasons:

1: Oakland’s offense starts with a power running game. With no Gallery, a declining Carlyle and no first-round draft pick, using a second round pick on a center could be devastating to the emerging offense.

After all, it is not guaranteed that Wisnieski would even unseat starter Samson Satele.

2: If second-year guard Bruce Campbell starts at the left guard position, which many observers are predicting, the majority of the interior line will be fortified by unproven players, which spells a learning curve that could cost the Raiders a game or two.

With the success of Oakland’s running game in 2010, teams will load up against the run game in 2011. So unless Oakland addresses the guard position in free agency, it needs to draft a monster offensive guard:

Second-round pick: Marcus Cannon/TCU or Danny Watkins/Baylor

Cannon and Watkins are monsters with the ability to anchor the left side of the line to assure that Oakland’s power run game stays intact.

Though many observers site Satele as a weak spot, statistics site left guard Carlyle as a weaker spot.