The home schedule is extremely favorable to us. The road schedule is obviously tougher, but the key note is that the Raiders are playing IN MINNESOTA. With my luck, I'll be in school down in Illinois when that game takes place, but maybe, just maybe I'll be able to see my beloved Raiders. I'm such a traitor.
For a player to be named later (seems the Reds have a lot of those players coming.......someday) or cash. I'll take the cash, to be honest with you. How's about $126 million??
Link
Howard was the Western Conference winner for the second straight week. He averaged 21.5 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.3 blocks in helping Dallas win four games and extend its winning streak to 10.
Howard had 28 points, 17 rebounds, five assists and three blocks in an 89-85 win at Denver on Sunday.
Josh Dubow, of the Associated Press, tells the Raiders they better pick Brady Quinn, the star QB of Notre Dame OR ELSE. Well, not really. But the basis for that is summed up as follows: "Um.....have you SEEN your other two QB's play?" The answer to which is no, because they were on national TV twice and I was not around to watch. I count myself thankful for that, but yes, our quarterback play was certainly abysmal. But back to Quinn now, for he is the talk of the town. It's not exactly the "Brady Quinn Bowl" as much as last year was the "Reggie Bush Bowl" but everyone is assuming Quinn will go #1. Funny part about that is how Bush didn't go #1. After all that hype. 'Tis a shame.
Anyway, I say no to this. Brady Quinn probably isn't the best QB of the year, probably won't be the best QB of the draft either. Sure, he's got that "star power" and "sex appeal" and a "hot sister" who "likes AJ Hawk quite a bit" and on and on and on, but I just do not want to see this pick happen. I would much rather see Adrian Peterson or Calvin Johnson here. I DO NOT WANT TO SEE A KICKER CHOSEN WITH THE #1 PICK NOR A LONG SNAPPER. That disclaimer was for the Raiders, who seemingly always come up with a dumb pick. Not that everyone team doesn't have dumb picks, but come on. I don't want to see another offensive lineman, even though that's what we desperately need. Why? I'm afraid he'll wind up like Gallery. Now, who DIDN'T think Gallery was going to be amazing? I mean sure, a #2 for a left tackle was not exactly all that interesting or exciting, but he was going to be a BEAST and knock people around. It just hasn't happened and it probably won't. I still have no clue as to why.
So forget about Quinn, let him take his beautiful drama somewhere else. We can keep his sister, though. We can take Troy Smith if we want to, that would be alright. Brian Brohm? Maybe. That Kolb guy from Houston who threw for a million yards? No, that's just overrated hype right there. Adrian Peterson bursting out of the backfield and creating his OWN blocks? Sure. Calvin Johnson catching EVERY pass thrown his way? Sure.
I think, though, that the Raiders will trade the #1 pick. Which isn't a bad move, after all Schweigert was calling for it. That's probably what they will do, and if a team wants Quinn bad enough (Quinn wants the Browns to pick him) then we can get some good stuff in return.
But in reality, who knows what will happen? Not I.
The Raiders obviously have many decisions to make heading into the offseason. The firing squad around the league took two early victims: Dennis Green of the Arizona Cardinals and Jim Mora of the Atlanta Falcons. I don't know much about the Mora story, other than him talking about going to coach at the University of Washington, but other than that, I'm actually surprised that he's done. He seemed like a pretty good coach to me. As far as Green goes, I feel bad for the man, partly because of the MINNESOTA CONNECTION, but also because he is a good man who should have done a better job with Arizona.
To sum it up, the Raiders have had four incredibly painful years, this year being the most painful of all. But you look at the past 10-12-15 years, and you see that there is something to be thankful for. Not being the Browns, or the Cardinals, or the Lions of all teams. But the Raiders are charging right in with them to become a team of that caliber. And that is not good, not good at all.
Will Art Shell stay? A lot of "pundits" who LOVE to trash the Raiders are saying he will leave. Most of them are saying that he is done. I say to them, maybe. But I doubt it. I will be surprised if he gets fired. I'm pretty sure he will stay for at least one more year and maybe even longer than that. And to be honest, I'm okay with that.
Like many, I have blamed Shell from time to time for a wide variety of things. It's hard to like a coach of a team that performs so poorly and even harder when reading through news reports and articles and blogs about how AWFUL this team has been. So many people are calling for Shell's head. I just don't buy it. If you go back to what I just said, this team performed poorly. This is a performance-based business. And the players did not perform. Surely, the coaching this year has not been without fault, it was not very good. But the players go out there, and even if they went out there with the most vanilla offense you could find (and that might have actually been the case) you still need to block, run, catch, throw, juke, spin, and PROTECT THE BALL.
Art Shell will be back. Sorry to those of you who don't like that, but do you want to sit through yet ANOTHER firing and hiring? This will not change things. And things definitely need to be changed. If I'm wrong, that's fine. I could be. I just don't see it. But if I am wrong, my choice for coach is Rob Ryan. Without a doubt. I want to hear that man speak, and he has no choice but to speak after games, after practices, and all of that. I want to see The Caveman step in front of the podium and throw around some knuckle-headed wisdom. That's just me, that's what I'm about. I think he's earned it.
