Richard Seymour Needs To Be No. 1 on Oakland Raiders' Re-Signing List

This past season was a terrific one for the silver and black.  

This upcoming offseason, however, is looking to be a dreadful one. Quite a few of our best players could be wearing a jersey that doesn't compare to the silver and black next season.

Nnamdi Asomugha, Kamerion Wimbley and Zach Miller are just a few names that will be hitting the free agency market this offseason; other notable free agents include Michael Huff, Stanford Routt and Michael Bush.

Nnamdi Asomugha has been the best cornerback in all of football in past couple seasons. No one can really compare. "He's being played to get interceptions, blah blah blah."

Tell that to the quarterbacks that are too scared to throw the ball to his side of the field. I believe Nnamdi only let up 10 catches all season for around 200 yards.  

Kamerion Wimbley was a stud coming out of college, only to be mediocre the rest of his career while in Cleveland. After coming to Oakland, Wimbley's career looked to be resurrected as he tallied up 58 tackles and nine sacks, playing as a linebacker/defensive end hybrid. 

Zack Miller has been one of the best draft picks the past few seasons. He's been the most consistent receiver on the team, catching almost every pass that comes his way. Each game, opposing teams have to game plan against him, constantly scaring teams and forcing them to pay extra attention to him.

Most the time, their game plan doesn't work and Miller will expose their weaknesses anyway.

Routt, Huff and Bush have all played well as well. Bush is the perfect complement to McFadden's speedy style.  Huff has really come on the past few seasons. He's been more of a ball hawk, and defensive coaches have finally learned to play him more physical, sending him in the box more and on more blitzes. They've also played him at corner as well, something I hope that they do more often.  

Routt showed some improvements this past season, but he also showed why he isn't completely ready yet to be a great player. There are too many plays where he gets beaten, but he also showed some good ball skills, such as his interceptions against the Rams and against the Chiefs.

All of these players are important, but I believe Richard Seymour is the most important of all.  

Seymour has helped the front four dominate offenses. He forces blockers to focus more on him and less on Tommy Kelly, Lamarr Houston and Matt Shaughnessy, who have all done great beating offensive linemen in one-on-one matchups.  

Seymour is also terrific in the run defense. He has great acceleration and constantly gets great push up the middle, making it easier for the young Rolando McClain to get in and clean things up.

What also makes me believe Seymour is the most important re-signing is that we have no one to replace him.  

I don't think we'll have any problems re-signing Michael Huff. I just have a gut feeling that we will re-sign him. If we lost Nnamdi, we could easily move Huff to cornerback and promote Mike Mitchell to strong safety, sliding Tyvon over to free safety.  

Wimbley is another key to our defense, but we still have Thomas Howard. He showed in the past that he's capable of being a great player and I don't believe he's that much worse than Wimbley.

Losing Zach Miller would hurt, but Brandon Myer has potential. Their style of play is pretty similar, if you ask me.  

Both are great catchers with good blocking skills. This would also help develop our receivers too, since the quarterback would have to get the ball out to the receivers more, rather than drop back and pass to Miller right away.

Michael Bush is a fan favorite, but after McFadden's terrific season, he as well as many defenders have gotten lost in the blur of McFadden's dominance.  

Who else do we have at defensive tackle? John Henderson. Can he replace Richard Seymour? Sure, he has the run defending skills, but he's not as active as he is and cannot be on the field for all three downs. 

Moving Houston back to inside could work, starting both Shaughnessy and Scott on the outside, but Houston cannot dominant the line as well as Seymour can. He is not as fast, as strong or as smart of a player as Seymour and our defense would fall flat on their faces without a dominant tackle controlling the line.