Raiders Need A Left Tackle NOW!!!

It is glaringly obvious what the Oakland Raiders must do to improve and become a winning team once again. The position that needs to be addressed is Left Tackle. I believe that our Wr crew has enough talent to get the job done. Unless one of the other 31 NFL teams make the mistake of letting one of their QBs slip away the Raiders cannont improve in this spot. I do not see any of the available QBs in the draft to be of much value except for maybe and that is a very big maybe Sam Bradford who will be gone long before the 8th spot where the Raiders sit. so they need to concentrate on the other position they need to be succesful in 2010.

One position that absolutely needs to be addressed which would greatly help the production of the Raiders QB position is the Left Tackle. It has been too many years since the Raiders have had a strong person to watch the backside of our QBs. Addressing this need is an absolute necessity. There is no one in free agency that can accomplish this gaping hole that resides in the Raiders line so it must be addressed in the Draft. No matter who is available in the 8th pick of the draft there will be a good OT. We are very lucky that this position is as deep as it is in this year's draft.

The clear cut best OT is Russel Okung from OK State. The chances of him being available to the Raiders is slim at best, so we must hope for one of the following players to be there. Bryan Bulaga from Iowa would be my next pick and he could drop to this position if we are lucky. He has been a gem on the field and promisses to be very good for a long time on the pro level. He is also a great worker and has a reputation of being a great member to society. He would also be undeer good tutalege from the other Hwkeye that the Raiders have who would be playing next to him. Gallery would love to have another Hawkeye to battle in the trenches with. Trent Williams from Oklahoma could also drop to this spot if Bulaga has been taken. This player is also very strong at Tackle. Some people have him playing on the right side of the line but I feel he will be very strong at Left Offensive Tackle. He has proven to be very consistant at this position in a strong colligate confrence. One of these two guys should be available when the Raiders pick.

There should be no other considerations of who the Raiders should spend their first round on. If they do pick anyone else I would consider the first round to be a brutal dissapointment once again. Even if all three guys are gone there are three others who could make good Left Tackles at the NFL level. Bruce Campbell from Maryland who has tremendous upside should be considdered Anthony Davis from Rutgers also has a ton of upside must also be considered. If the Raiders don't want to take a character or motivational risk they must go to the final option in Charles Brown From USC who very well could be the sleeper at Left Tackle in the entire draft and end up being the best of them all.

This draft lends a great amount of talent and depth at Left Tackle, all of whom would be a huge improvement at the position needed the most by Oakland. There is no excuse for the Raiders to be in the same situation that they have been in for the last eight years. Without blind side protection for our QB. If we expect an improvement in the QB production we must give whoever is under Center a sence of security and time in the pocket to make the right reads and lead this offense into the end zone more often. This can also give our Defense more time to rest on the sidelines which will improve the production on that side of the ball.

More than lickley Davis will go after another "skilled" position player or DB. As i said at the beginning of this rant, this would be a mistake and total dissapointment. It has been years since we have had the opportunity to shore up the second most important position in football and the chances of improving at QB are very slim. Why not improve our QB production by drafting his personal body guard.