Where Do the Oakland Raiders Go From Here?

For the Raiders, it seems a running joke to find high-draft talent...then come back and find a couple gems in the later rounds.

For the bungle of drafting Darrius Heyward-Bey, we did find Louis Murphy. For the miss with Russell, we did have Zach Miller, Johnnie Lee Higgins, Michael Bush and Mario Henderson.

Other examples exist. It makes you wonder how Al Davis could botch an early round with Bey, but find Scott laying low in the sixth round?

For Oakland, some simple items that were pushed aside need to be addressed now.

Number one, is stopping the run. Oakland did pick up some pieces for starters, with Richard Seymour and Greg Ellis joining the club.

However, this is going to be tempered if Kirk Morrison is allowed to walk. Oakland also needs to find a proven run stopper and don't bank on Ndamukong Suh being at number eight, unless the Raiders do the unthinkable and trade up with the Rams.

Number two, is the need to replace a penalty-prone offensive line. It would be questionable to waste a high pick on a line position, maybe the Raiders can fix two problems at once. Trading down, for an extra lineman, and then a mid-to-late first round pick would give the team a good position to drop off Cornell Green and Cooper Carlisle.

Number three, and I want everyone to repeat this.

We are not going to draft another quarterback. Pure and simple, Oakland does not have a good position for a QB, be it Tim Tebow or Jimmy Claussen. We learned the hard way with JaMarcus Russell that Oakland needs to fix the line first and, depending on how the QB situation pans out in the offseason, we might be better served by signing Bruce Gradkowski to a deal and shipping Russell to the UFL.

It's going to be an interesting time to see who the Raiders plunk down the money for. But odds are good, don't expect Sebastian Janikowski to kick for anyone else next year....or Nnamdi Asomugha to don a different jersey.