No More Dead Weight Equals .500 Season for Oakland

For the past several years, Oakland has loaded its roster full of players with so much potential yet have no work ethic or willingness to be great players. These players were known for dragging their feet and really kept the team down because they didn't commit themselves to the team, therefore when they failed it negatively affected others around them both in practice and in games. When your $30 million quarterback is sleeping in team meetings, your two defensive tackles are preferring to get fat rather than work out and have some form of stamina to play more than one good play in a row, or your right tackle is hitting his wife with a broom handle, things have to change. These type of players bring a team down because of lack of focus and willingness to commit to the team. However, the past two years we've seen Al Davis and Tom Cable commit to drafting players with great work ethics. DHB is looking very good in practice because he's been working his ass off and studying everything he can get his hands on. The rest of the '09 draft class like Mike Mitchell, Matt Shaughnessey, Louis Murphy, and Brandon Myers are all working their asses off unlike several Raiders who were drafted or brought in via free agency between the years 2003 through 2008. The Raiders' recent draft picks of Rolando McClain, Lamarr Houston, and Edwin "Jared" Veldheer further show these young Raiders understand how to work and how these new Raiders are going to excel. Recently I read a quote by McClain. "You went from being the big guy on campus, and now it's like you're starting at the bottom of the totem pole. Everybody's good and the thing that separates those that are just good and don't play from those who do play is how well you study. How much film you watch, how well you know the defense. Get in your playbook as much as possible and know what to do when you're on the field, because everybody's good, everybody has talent. " These new Raiders are changing the attitude and brin...