Oakland Raiders Have Dropped the Ball, Need Big-Play Wideout!

The Oakland Raiders finished the tumultuous ’08 season strong with back-to-back victories. The players battled through a gauntlet of troubling issues, ranging from Kiffin’s war with Davis, new play callers, and benching. Eventually, they were rewarded with the No. 7 overall pick of the 2009 NFL Draft.          

What will Davis and the Raiders do with that pick? History shows that Davis will not trade the pick away but rather choose a freakishly gifted athlete. But what do the Raiders need?

The most popular answer would be an offensive tackle, someone that the coaching staff can plant at that left tackle position and grow and flourish, then move Kwame Harris to right tackle, where he is a better fit.

There is such an Offensive tackle in this draft: Eugene Monroe from the Virginia Cavaliers is the successor of Brandon Albert and D’Brickshaw Ferguson, two very successful left tackles in the NFL now.

The biggest need for an offensive tackle is to protect our investments at running back and quarterback, Darren McFadden and JaMarcus Russell, respectively.

The next option at No. 7 is a wide receiver—Michael Crabtree, to be precise. He is a 6’3” 214lb, record-setting wide out from the Texas Tech Red Raiders. He has great ball skills, hands, size, body control, and can run after the catch; but does he have the speed to separate from corners? That is something scouts will look for at the combine.

These two players will certainly improve a team that has at least half a dozen needs, but which one will improve the Oakland Raiders the most? Michael Crabtree. Yes, our offensive line was bad, but it wasn’t that bad, plus we have a threatening running game that assists our passing game. Our offensive line play will get better with coaching, it has already.

The past couple of years, we have passed on or have had the chance to get big time wide receivers: Larry Fitzgerald and Calvin Johnson jump to mind.

We need to try and get a big-play wideout that will help J-Roc. How many times did our receivers drop the ball? How many times did Russell get sacked because no one was open? Too many times!

All of these problems could be solved by a wideout that arguably is the best that has ever played the game at the college level. Alas, Davis will have the final say in what the Oakland Raiders do with the No. 7 pick, therefore one could never be sure in what will happen.