NFL Free Agency: Oakland Raiders Need to Bolster Weak WR Corps

On Monday, the NFL lockout finally died. Before anybody could lift a finger to celebrate, it was time to get down to business. With free agency starting today, you can rest assured that there will be plenty of craziness to go around in the next couple weeks.

The Oakland Raiders will definitely be in on it, make no mistake about that. They have a grand total of 18 free agents who they have to worry about, and the word around the campfire is that they have some work to do to get under the cap. Players are going to be moving in and out of Oakland at an alarming pace, and it's a good bet that the 2011 Raiders will bear little resemblance to the 2010 Raiders.

As has been the case for several years now, one of the primary areas of concern for the Silver and Black is the team's wide receiver corps. The good news is that it is chock-full of talented youngsters. The bad news is that it's hard to accuse Oakland's crop of receivers of being productive.

With the team due to start training camp on Wednesday, let's go ahead and take an honest look at the Raiders receivers. After we do that, we can discuss the team's cap situation, which should allow us to pinpoint some reasonable free agency pickups.

State of the WR Corps

As mentioned above, this is a very young group. Darrius Heyward-Bey and Louis Murphy, the Raiders' two primary receivers, are both just 24, and they are both about to embark on their third season with the team. To put it lightly, the first two have been a mixed bag.

We all know Heyward-Bey's story. He was the seventh overall pick in 2009, and he just hasn't done much to justify the Raiders reaching for him. He caught just nine passes in his rookie season and just 26 in his sophomore campaign. We know he has speed, but he has yet to demonstrate that he actually knows how to be a wide receiver. Now that he has two years under his belt, it's pretty much now or never in 2011.

Murphy is equally enigmatic. He led all Raiders receivers with 41 grabs for 609 yards in 2010, but he has been maddeningly inconsistent in his first two seasons in the Black Hole. He too has something to prove in 2011.

The one bright spot in the Raiders receiving corps in 2010 was Jacoby Ford. A fourth-round draft pick, Ford emerged as maybe the fastest player in the NFL, but he also showed a flair for the dramatic. He's not afraid to go up and fight for the ball, and he seems to have a knack for making tough catches. It will be interesting to see if new head coach Hue Jackson drums up more excuses to get the ball to Ford this year.

Aside from these three players, the Raiders don't have much. Chaz Schilens has all the right tools to be a productive wide receiver, but he just hasn't been able to stay healthy the last couple of seasons. Johnnie Lee Higgins, who has had his moments in his four years with the team, is a free agent and isn't likely to be back. Exactly what they're going to get out of rookie receivers Denarius Moore and David Ausberry remains to be seen.

Add it all up, and it's pretty apparent that help is needed. Exactly where that help is going to come from, however, is a little more difficult to determine.

Cap Situation

According to Paul Gutierrez of CSNCalifornia.com, the Raiders are $10 million over the league's $120 million salary cap, and they haven't even signed any of their free agents yet. Plenty of cuts are going to have to be made, and some deals are going to be restructured.

Because the Raiders will have to commit quite a bit of money to bringing back players like Michael Bush, Zach Miller and Michael Huff and a bit more to patching up the offensive line, the fact of the matter is that they're just not going to have much money to spend on a wide receiver (or two).

With that in mind, let's go ahead and rule a few names out.

Unrealistic Targets

When you look at the wide receivers on the free agent market this year, names like Sidney Rice, Santonio Holmes, Braylon Edwards and Steve Smith definitely jump out at you. To be sure, these are just a couple of the receivers on the market this year that have proven they can be relied on to be productive.

Because of that, they're going to command pretty lucrative contracts. In all likelihood, they will be too lucrative for the Raiders to match.

Instead, what the Raiders will have to do is target a veteran who might be a little on the older side, but who also has a couple of good years left in him. They could also target a younger guy whose numbers don't do his talent proper justice.

Basically, the Raiders will have to target receivers that won't cost an arm and a leg.

Realistic Targets

One guy who has been mentioned as a possible fit for the Raiders is former New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress, who of course is fresh off a prison sentence of nearly two years. He's going to be 34 in August, and his best days are probably behind him

Still, Burress is the kind of guy that should still be able to get it done, as his time in jail hasn't robbed him of his impressive natural gifts. The only thing is that you get the sense that his services are going to be in demand, and there are plenty of legit contenders that will be giving Burress a close look. If he has options, it's hard to see Burress signing with the Raiders. Not impossible, but hard.

If the Raiders do want to pursue the older veteran route, players like Terrell Owens and Santana Moss could be in play. The only problem is that Owens is recovering from ACL surgery, and Moss is another player that will attract a bidding war. Both are possible, but hardly likely.

On the younger end of the spectrum, two guys who might be possible fits are James Jones and Steve Breaston. Both are in their 20s, and both are coming off seasons that would have made them the No. 1 option on the Raiders.

Jones caught 50 passes for 679 yards and five touchdowns with the Green Bay Packers, and Breaston caught 47 balls for 718 yards and one touchdown with the Arizona Cardinals, which is pretty good considering the quarterback issues they had in 2010. Both of them are solid, but they should be considerably cheaper than guys like Holmes and Smith.

On the same level as Jones and Breaston are guys like Malcom Floyd and Mike Sims-Walker. A player like Floyd is particularly intriguing, as he is a bigger guy that would be a perfect go-to option for Jason Campbell. He's going to be expensive, but the Raiders might be able to fit him in if, heaven forbid, one of their own coveted free agents departs.

One way or another, you get the sense that the Raiders will not turn their attention to their wide receiver corps until a number of other concerns have been taken care of. By the time they do, their options could very well be limited.

If so, the Raiders may have to be content with the players they already have.