Tag: 184466

HENDERSON, Nev. — Consider it one of the biggest challenges facing the Las Vegas Raiders‘ new regime. And it’s not merely a single-prong problem.

Because while general manager Dave Ziegler and coach Josh McDaniels have to clean up what can only be considered draft misses (messes?) by previous staffs, they also have to show they have learned from those mistakes and avoid making the same ones going forward.

Consider: The Raiders have given out second consecutive contracts to six of their 68 post-Al Davis draft picks from 2012 to 2019.

Only one was a first-rounder (left tackle Kolton Miller, who was drafted by Jon Gruden and Reggie McKenzie in 2018) and one was taken in the second round (quarterback Derek Carr, who has signed a pair of extensions after being picked by McKenzie and Dennis Allen in 2014).

Two third-round picks (guard Gabe Jackson went 81^st overall in 2014 and offensive tackle Brandon Parker went 65^th in 2018) and a pair of fourth-rounders (defensive tackle Justin Ellis was No. 107 in 2014, while defensive end Maxx Crosby was taken No. 106 overall by Gruden and Mike Mayock in 2019) round out the list.

Only the New York Giants have signed fewer of their draft picks over the same time frame to second contracts (two), while the Jacksonville Jaguars have extended 10 of their 59 picks from 2012 to ’19.

And when you throw in the fact that three of the Raiders’ 15 eligible first-round draft picks since 2005 have signed second deals with the team — Miller, running back Darren McFadden (drafted in 2007) and 2006 first-round defensive back Michael Huff (Las Vegas also re-signed 2016 first-round safety Karl Joseph in 2021 after Joseph spent a year with the Cleveland Browns) — it’s easier to fathom how the team has only been to the playoffs twice, losing both postseason games, since appearing in Super Bowl XXXVII … in January 2003.

Yet, as Carr said last week at the news conference announcing his three-year, $121.5 million extension — he previously signed a five-year, $125 million extension in 2017 — he wanted to make sure money was left on the table to take care of teammates in need of, yes, second contracts.

“Guys like, hopefully, Hunter [Renfrow] and Foster [Moreau],” Carr said of his slot receiver, who was a fifth-round pick in 2019, and his backup tight end, a fourth-rounder that same year. “And [hopefully] those guys can stay here the way we structured [my extension].

“I went through a heartbreak already last time I signed my contract, my best friend [Khalil Mack] left, and I didn’t want that to ever happen again. And so, this was an opportunity for me to prove to the team, to the organization, to our fans, that the way we’re going to structure this is so that we can keep everybody together and really, really have real continuity, really have something to build on. And so, for me, it was like, how do we do that?”

The Raiders will also get roughly $20 million in salary-cap space after June 1, thanks to the releases of defensive end Carl Nassib and linebackers Cory Littleton and Nick Kwiatkoski.

Plus, the Raiders will have to make decisions on whether to apply fifth-year options on their 2019 first-round picks — defensive end Clelin Ferrell, running back Josh Jacobs and safety Johnathan Abram.

“Usually in these negotiations, ‘How much money can we get?'” Carr said. “And then they’re, ‘How much can we save?’ And this was just different. There was a learning curve about it. Like, how do we make that happen to where I feel good and to where the team feels great, like, ‘Man, we can still build a championship team around you.’ And so, that was what was important to us. And hopefully this contract proves that.”

The proof, though, remains in the draft and the regime’s coming selection technique.

It is the lifeblood of any organization, and with Raiders owner Mark Davis bringing in a couple of lifelong New England Patriots in Ziegler and McDaniels to run the football side of things, expect big changes.

Such as the actual, well, draft philosophy. The Raiders do not have first- or second-round picks, thanks to the Davante Adams trade, and are not scheduled to make the first of their five selections until the third round, at No. 86 overall.

“We’re going to try to draft the best players [available],” McDaniels said at the NFL owners meetings. “I mean, if we draft three in the same position in a row, because they’re clearly the three best players when it’s our turn to draft, I mean, you make a strength stronger.

“To me, the best way to improve your team is to continue to take the right guy. Not, ‘Oh, man, we’ve got a hole on the roster, let’s take this guy just because his name says whatever position beside him.'”

And maybe, just maybe, the Raiders will find some guys worthy of second contracts that way.

HENDERSON, Nev. — Take a deep breath …

Kolton Miller at left tackle. John Simpson at left guard. Andre James at center. Alex Leatherwood at right guard. And Brandon Parker at right tackle.

OK, exhale …

Yes, it’s a unit that contributed to Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr getting sacked 40 times in 2021, the second-highest total of his eight-year career. It’s also a unit that, as the team prepares to begin its offseason workout program next week under new coach Josh McDaniels, is in line to return as is.

Wait, what? Are the Raiders really going to run it back with a unit that was a decided weakness a year ago?

Yeah, about that …

“There was an offensive lineman we were interested in and, again, there’s a level of discipline, like I said, that you have to have,” new Raiders general manager Dave Ziegler told three beat reporters at the recent NFL owners meetings in Palm Beach, Florida. “Some of those opportunities went a different way, and so we pivoted and we went a different way and strengthened other parts of the team.”

Yeah, the Raiders were looking at fortifying the O-line in the early days of free agency. Instead, they put the band back together and re-signed Parker, a much-decried third-round selection in 2018, to a one-year, $3.5 million deal with $2.662 million guaranteed.

Ziegler referred to the 26-year-old Parker as a still “ascending player” for Las Vegas.

“He has very good size, very good length, which are two important attributes at the offensive tackle position,” Ziegler said of the 6-foot-8, 320-pounder who started the last 13 games at right tackle.

“He’s an athletic guy for his size and he’s a guy that I think can continue to, again, Brandon is not a finished product. … He can continue to get better. He had a good experience of playing a lot of snaps last year … there’s a lot of learning that comes from that. All those things were exciting.”

And, as Associated Press pointed out, while Parker did have the highest Pro Football Focus grade of his career last season, he was still ranked just 52nd out of 55 tackles in the league overall — 47th in run blocking and 48th in pass blocking.

Las Vegas also signed versatile Alex Bars in free agency and re-signed Jermaine Eluemunor, who started three early-season games at right guard. And the Raiders will also regain the services of Denzelle Good, who opened the year as the starting right guard but was lost for the season when he tore the ACL in his left knee in the opener.

So maybe the Raiders aren’t exactly, ahem, running it back, huh?

Not when another $20 million or so comes back to their salary cap after June 1, thanks to the cuts of defensive end Carl Nassib and linebacker Cory Littleton. And not with every player essentially getting a “fresh start” from Ziegler and McDaniels.

And, as McDaniels said, aside from Miller being a foundation piece at left tackle, the O-line will be evolving throughout the offseason heading into training camp.

“They’re not just going to play one spot,” McDaniels said. “When I talk about relative versatility and flexibility, you better be able to play more than one spot or it’s just hard to create extra value for yourself, and for the team, if we have too many players who are just one-position players.”

McDaniels said a lot of different players will be shuffling in and out of both right tackle and right guard.

“Let them compete,” McDaniels said. “The best guys will play. But, in order to do that, we’ve got to let everybody have an opportunity.”

Which brings us back to the key to the right side of the line — last year’s first-round pick.

Is Leatherwood a right tackle, where he began last season as a starter? Or if he a right guard, where he was moved in Week 5? The No. 17 overall pick of the 2021 draft, and one of the most penalized lineman in the NFL, might be the key to the whole line.

“He’s an important part of it,” McDaniels said. “He played a lot of football as a rookie and that counts for something, you know what I mean? And you can say, well it was this or that. I know this, his second year is going to feel like his second year, not his rookie year because he was in there a lot. He played a lot of snaps. He played tackle, he played guard. And we’re going to try to give him an opportunity to earn a role that’s his best fit and that’s the best fit for the Raiders.

“And look, we know what he was drafted for and we’re going to give him an opportunity to do such. But ultimately, what we want to do at the end of the day is we’re going to let the best five guys out there. The best five guys we can put out there to protect the quarterback and run the football and be physical, that’s what we’re going to try to do.”

Yeah, it’s a work in progress.