Whether management wants to say it or not, this season has been a rebuilding year for the Oakland Raiders. Reggie McKenzie inherited a team that was in salary cap hell. He had to get rid of players who were undeserving of their contracts and was unable to retain some key players.
One of those key players was Samson Satele, the center who went on to sign with the Indianapolis Colts. The loss of Satele resulted in the Raiders being down one interior lineman. The result is that Stefen Wisniewski is now a center, and the Raiders had to settle for the cheap Cooper Carlisle.
Unfortunately, Carlisle has little left in the tank. Raiders fans have seen this for the past couple seasons now. The thing Carlisle had going for him entering the season was that he was a veteran in the zone-blocking scheme system and shouldn't be too bad playing in between two up-and-coming blockers.
That has not played out as well as many hoped. Carlisle is a player who looks like he's playing on roller skates. I'm sure Cooper is a tremendous person, a great teammate and 100 percent undeserving of all this hate I'm constantly talking about him, but he is not an adequate professional lineman anymore.
That said, it's time for McKenzie to work his magic. Many credit him with rebuilding the Green Bay Packers and setting them up for success after the Brett Favre era. To completely turn around an Oakland Raiders team is the ultimate challenge, and it starts with the draft.
The Raiders will enter the 2013 draft with a lot of holes. To name a few: cornerback, defensive tackle, left g...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Oakland Raiders
