After finishing an 8-8 season, the Oakland Raiders have a lot of important decisions to make regarding the future of the organization. Of course the most important decision being who will act as G.M. to replace the late Al Davis, not only as a leader but as a personal director. The Raiders also have to decide what kind of changes need to be taken to the coaching staff, as well as the players in contract years. The Raiders are very close to the cap limit and also gave up crucial draft picks for this upcoming NFL draft, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Raiders will be quiet once the free agency frenzy begins.

One of the most note-worthy issues that the team must address will be the fate of Defensive Coordinator Chuck Bresnahan. Even if the team’s secondary was plagued with injuries, the constant “nail biting”, close call, last second loses, is no excuse for poor game management and defensive blunders that were laced throughout the entire 2011 season. Head Coach Hue Jackson has done a great job improving the offense to a top-15 overall unit, unfortunately the teams’ lack of defensive consistency has resulted in allowing the opposing team to pull off the comeback victory, or at least come dangerously close. A great solution would be for Jackson to bring in a defensive specialist that can take over the reigns, and quickly get the defensive unit to commit to the system. An ideal candidate would be recently fired head coach Raheem Morris of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. With Morris’ defensive knowledge, and successful defensive history, coupled with defensive backs coach Rod Woodson’s knowledge of the talent that exists in the secondary, would result in a juggernaut of a defense that even the likes of Brady, Brees, and Rodgers, would have to respect.

After addressing the personal issues, the Raiders will then look to improve the team’s roster. Since the team spent the first four draft picks of this upcoming draft already, its safe to assume that the team will treat free agency as their own kind of pseudo-draft. The teams biggest two weapons to lock up will be safety Tyvon Branch and running back Michael Bush who will be two marquee names in the free agent pool that the Raiders can’t afford to let go. Branch appears to be the easiest to resolve via new contract or franchise tag. On the other hand, Bush will be a highly coveted player because of his durability and punishing running style. Where the real questions surface, is what CAN the Raiders do to improve the team’s roster? Don’t be surprised if the Raider’s trade away a player that leaves some people scratching their heads, most notably, running back Darren McFadden, whose contract only has two years left, both years paying an average 5.8 million. There isn’t a team that wouldn’t want the all-purpose back, whose speed and strength can’t be matched. Even if his durability is his biggest question mark, a team with an established running game would be able to limit the risk of further injury by limiting the number of touches McFadden gets. By trading away McFadden away the Raiders should be able to get a 2^nd round pick for the 2012 draft and a conditional 1^st round pick for the 2013 draft at minimum, The Raiders have proven they can be successful on the ground with Bush as the feature back, add in the explosiveness of rookie Taiwan Jones and the versatile Marcell Reece, and the Raiders still will have a top 5 run game that will bully opposing defensives.

At 8-8 the Oakland Raiders may view their 2011-2012 season as a failure, but lets consider the factors: a shortened off-season, new coach, new quarterback, numerous injuries at key positions, and, most important, a passing of a legendary owner, most teams would have thrown in the towel at less adversity, but the Raiders fought to the last second of the last play, and although they came up short of their playoff hopes, they still provided much needed life into raider nation by selling out every home game for the first time since the late 90’s. And though it may be cliché’ to say, “next year will be better”, when it comes to the Oakland Raiders, fans better believe that the silver and black are indeed back.

Gabriel Rideout is an NFL team writer for The Penalty Flag and can be contacted at GRideout@ThePenaltyFlagBlog.com

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