Every year the Oakland Raiders trudge through their scheduling, showing flashes of potential, usually followed almost immediately be streaks of disappointment. That may all be changing with the arrival of Matt Schaub and Maurice Jones-Drew.
Both players provide the Raiders with veteran leadership in the huddle. Schaub will be the key to the Raiders’ offensive attack, and if he can get back into form, he gives their offense an opportunity to be successful through the air.
On the ground, the Raiders now have some options. Darren McFadden is injured about as often as he’s playing healthy, but with Jones-Drew around, the two backs should be able to share the load. Both players are good runners when they’re healthy, which should give the Raiders the ability to operate a ball control offense. They may not be the most exciting group to watch, but Oakland could be successful with an old-school offense and a staunch defense.
There’s little doubt the Raiders are really only interested in winning right now. In the immediate future, the Raiders may be able to compete in the AFC, but in one of the league’s toughest divisions, it’s hard to imagine them making their way into the playoffs just yet, and that may be their biggest problem of all.
Because Oakland is putting aging veterans in key positions on offense, they’ll have to immediately begin looking for younger players to replace those aging leaders. That’s been a problem in Oakland since the early 2000s, and while it will get better in the short-term, at least from a purely wins-losses perspective, the Raiders don’t appear to have any long-term plan of action in place for when their running backs have nothing left in the tank at all.
Comparisons can be made between this year’s Raiders and last year’s Chiefs, but there are some key differences between the two teams. The Chiefs acquired Alex Smith, a veteran quarterback, but Kansas City was also already operating with a solid young core of players. The Raiders, by contrast, acquired Schaub without the group of core players that should allow Schaub to function at a high level.
In addition, Smith, when the Chiefs went out to get him, was coming off of possibly his best year. Sure, he was replaced by Colin Kaepernick, but that was only due to Kaepernick’s high level of play, not because Smith had fallen off in some way.
The way to build long-term success in the NFL is still through the draft, and until the Raiders can figure out how to win on draft day, they’ll continue to lose during the season. The additions of Schaub and Jones-Drew may help in the short-term future, but they’re just patches for long-term problems. Until those patches are replaced with young, core players, the Raiders will continue to flounder in the AFC West.
