AFC West Preview.

AFC West 

In The West, The Sun Doesn't Look Prepared To Set On The Chiefs. For the seventh straight Season, The Chiefs Have Walked Into The Playoff With The Division Championship Safely In the Almost Challenge. Even Before Mahomes Arrived, The Chiefs Were In Charged In Their Division. Now, Their Icy Grip On The Thrown Looks a Bit Loosened. For The Second Year In A Row, The Chiefs Have To Face a Crucial Turnover At The Wide Receiver Position. They overcame The loss of Tyreek Hill A Year Ago. They Won A Super Bowl, But Another Of Rolling In New Bodies To Build Rapport With Less Proven Talent.

Furthermore, Injury And Price Tags Might Keep Key Contributors Sideline, Like Travis Kelce And Chris Jones, On The Sidelines And In The Stand For Extended Time. If Mahomes Suffers From Too Many Moments of Mortality, The Chief Could Find Themselves Teetering Off Platform. The Broncos Can't Play Worse Than They Played Last Year—They Could, But We're Looking Forward Optimistically. Sean Payton As The Biggest Challenge In Football on His Reconciling A Forlorn Russell Wilson With Inspired Football Play. The Broncos Need To Play Justifiable Football To Prove They Still Belong. Don't Worry About Competing Right Now. The Chargers Have The Best Shot At The Chiefs, But Every Good Shot Needs Luck To Land. I've Read California Has One of The Highest Grades Of Health Care In The States, but The Chargers Players Need A Dip In The River Styx To Transform Their Bodies. The Raiders have a Dark Horse Position In This Division. I Don't Expect Josh McDaniel's Team To Compete Outright With Either The Chargers Or the Chiefs. Still, If Any Of Those Two Slip, The Raiders Have The Talent On Offense To Run Away With The Division. If You're A Team Second Guessing Your Defense, You Wouldn't See Them On Sundays. 

The Broncos Can't Seem To Catch A Break At Wide Receiver. The Offense, The Reputation, and The Dignity Of This Team, New Head Coach Sean Payton Has Taken On To Salvage From The Wreckage Of Last Season Debacle Keeps Taking Hits. I Can't Lie; I Didn't Too Much Time Getting Spirited Away In The Broncos "Melodrama" Of Last Season. The Broncos Pulled The Trigger One Season Too Early On Their Search For A New Veteran Quarterback, Settling For Russell Wilson When They Really Wanted Aaron Rodgers. Kids, Listen, Never Settle. The Broncos Shelled Out Draft Capital, Then Added A New Legder To Wilson's Contract With a massive five-year, $245 million extension, $165 Million Guaranteed. I'm Surprised Teams haven't Learn To Stray Away From Veteran Castoff, But The Broncos Hope To Strike Oil Twice After Success with Peyton Manning Almost A Decade Ago. The Broncos Never Landed Oil Last Season. They Just Stumbled Through The Desert, Tripping Up Over Mirages Of The Quarterback They Thought They'd Acquired. You'd Think Teams Would Learn From All Of The Cautionary Tales Already Written On Acquiring Veteran Quarterbacks. Still, At Worse, Millions Go Down The Drain, And In A Few Years, You're Back At The Top Of The Draft.

I Don't Think Anyone Thought Russell Would Struggle So Much But He Struggled. His Broncos Era Started Light Hearted, "Broncos Country Let's…" Not To That, By The End Of The Season, "Nobody's Smiling". The Relationship between Coach Always appears torn, Given The Unspoken Truth That "Broncos hired Hackett to attract Rodgers." Wilson Never wanted an exit In Seattle, Where They Venerated Him As A Demi-god, And This "Dejection" Became Palatable. You Could Feel The Disillusionment Out There. Hackett Had No Answer For Russell's Out Of Structure Style Of Play. Russ Can't Operate In The Gun Because He Can't See OVER the Middle, And With Age and His Mobility Drove Into The Ground, His Strongest Attributes Couldn't Overcome The Institutional Demands.

The Responsibility For Recharging Russ Falls On Legacy Coach Sean Payton, Whom The Broncos Traded A First-Round Pick To Secure His Routes. That Extension Russ Signed Locks Him And The Broncos Together For Maybe Another Two Season; the Dead Money The Broncos Would Have To Eat Would Choke Them Out, But I Don't Think Sean Payton Will Exercise Patience With Russ If The Quarterback Can't Produce In The Knew Offense. Looking Up And Down Russ's Production From Last Year, You Can't Glean Anything Redeemable, Just Torch The Season. Russ's Average Of Target Remained Steady, Around The Top Of The League, But That's More A Product Or A Demand Of His Stature More Than Anything Else. "Look, I've said, like any player, it's about how do we get them comfortable and highlight their strengths," Payton said. "That's our task as coaches.' In Some Years, That's An Easy Task For Coaches; in Other Years, You Have The 2023 Broncos. 

With Russ's Strengths Diminishing, Highlighting How He Once Succeeded In Those Areas Only Exacerbates His Decline. Thats Like Designing A Portfolio To Demonstrate To Your Shareholders How Your Company Has Declined. Unless I'm Mistaken, Russ Wants To Save The Remaining Gas In His Tank For The Encore. Russ Has Taken A lot Of Sacks In His Career Just As A subproduct of His scrambling. Last Season He Took The Most Of His Career. 

His Complete Stats Resembled More Of What You'd Expect From His Replacement In Seattle, Geno Smith, 3500, Passer Rating Of 84.4, 16 Touchdowns, 11 Interceptions, And Some To Low Lights. I'm sure Russ Wants To Play Better, but I Don't Expect—"Last year was last year," Russ Said— Payton To Have Too Much Patience If The Two Don't Get On Page Early In The Season. Jarrett Stidhams A solid Backup Who Almost Won A Game For The Raiders Against The Niners Last Season. He's A Prototypical Dropback Specialist. If Sean Payton Only Had Russ's Issue To Tinker With, Perhaps The Broncos Would Look More Like A Workable Job, But The Issue On Offense Only Starts. The Skill Position Players On This Team All Need A Bit Of Coaching Up. Last Season, The RunningBacks Struggled With Fumble. The Broncos Cut Melvin Ingram, They Lost Promising 2nd Year Player Jevonte Williams To An ACL Injury. Veteran Latavis Murray Took Over The Brunt Of The Snaps And Performed Admirably as A Stop Gap Option. He's A Bit Long In The Tooth, But Murray leads the Team With 703 Yards On The Ground. The Broncos Hope The Return Of Williams Sure Up A Running Game That Greatly Lacks 'Efficiency.' The Broncos' Receiving group Struggled Consistently to Finding A Flow In The Offense. This Group Lost Tim Patrick In The Offseason, Their Big Body Down Field Threat. Only Three Receivers Saw More Than 50 Targets(Jerry Jeudy, Cortland Sutton, Greg Dulcich), and Only One Receiver Caught More Than Two Touchdowns, Jeudy. No Broncos PAss Catcher One Went Over 1000 Yards A season. The Broncos Have A Misfitted Collection Of Receivers, They're All Skilled, But They Don't Compliment One Another. Without A True Deep Threat, Defenses Could Squat In Spots Over The Top And Keep Everything In Front Of Them. The Offense Played Wide Opened, The Separation Became Stingy, Concepts Became Limited, and Russ Stayed In The Pocket. Russ Had A Symbiotic Union With His Receiver In Seattle; They Moved As He Moved. He Couldn't Find His Match In Denver Because The Receiver Had Their Play Style Times To A Drop Back Style Quarterback. 

If The Broncos Have A Star At Receiver in the Making, Jerry Jeudy Has That designation. This Off-season, Jeudy Had His Name engaged in Trade Rumors, But Ultimately, No One Met The Broncos' Price, and He's Still In The Mile High. If Things Don't Turnaround, His Name Should Pop Up Around The Trade Deadline. We Understand Jeudy's Place as A Receiver. He's Good In Space, Quick Bending Routes Into The Boundary, But He Lacks "The Top Off" Speed But He's Deceptive. Jeudy Doesn't Have Number One Wide Receiver Chops, but I Wonder If They Just Haven't Brought The Best In Him Yet. Cortland Sutton, The Broncos' Other Top Receiver's Talented, Another Big Body But Sutton, Too, Has been Limited With Creating Separation.

Sutton Will Have Most Of The Target And Offense. Look at him at The Beginning Of The Season. The Broncos Will Presumably Be Without Jeudy To Start The Season. Indeed, they won't Have Tim Patrick, Out Whom They Lost For The Second Season In A Row With Season Surgery ahead Of The Season. Patrick Signed A Big Extension Last Season, Then Tore His ACL In Practice. With the Broncos Looking Forward To Having Patrick Back With The Offense, Patrick Suffered An Achilles Injury. The Team's Monitoring Jeudy's Hamstring Injury. Rookie Marvin Mims will Step Up And Snag Those Snaps In The Interim. The Broncos' Tight Ends Look Solid If Anything The Offense Under Utilized Them. Greg Dulcich Saw The Most Action At Tight End For The Team, with 51 Targets and 411 yards. The Broncos Finished With One Of The Most Mediocre Red Zone Offenses In The League. Things Could Have Finished Worse In They Hadn't Come Along Late In The Year. Sean Payton's Gotten The Best Out Of Athletic Tight Ends Like Dulcich. If I Looked at Sundays And Saw Dulcich Or Another Broncos Tight End Doing Numbers 10 Catches, 86 Yards, and A touchdown, His Production Wouldn't Surprise Me. The Broncos' Defense presents an Entirely Different Theory And An Entirely Different Outcome Because, Year To Year, They're Always "Formidable" In Some Regard. Some Years, The Defensive Line Can The Game, But Denver's Defense Always Has A Top Rate Coverage Unit In The League Like They Did Last Year Or The Year Before. The Broncos Invoke An Advantage On Offense That No Other Team Can, And Thats Not Because Of Superior Talent. The Air Thinning Altitude In Mike High Stadium, The Fatigue Producing Force Offensive To Taper Down, Move At a Slow Rate. The Broncos Don't Get An Automatic Win. Still, For The Defense, The Numbers shift In Their Advantage Because Of An Organic Advantage. The Broncos Ranked Top Ten In EPA Per Play Last And Top Five In EPA Per Drop back.

Second-Year Corner Patrick Surtain Gets The Highlighted Star On His Name For This Group. He Got Tested By Devante Adams Last Season, But Surtain Proved He's One Of Them. I'm Not Ready To Tag Surtain With That "Honor" Just Yet. Star Safety Justin Simmons Helps Blanket The Side Of The Field Usually Not Covered By Surtain. Still, He's Everywhere The Football's Thrown. He's Ranked As One Of The Best Safeties In The Game Even As His Play Has Declined A Bit. Veteran Kareem Jackson Runs With Simmons. The Thirteen-Year Vet Can't Match The Physicality Of The Game. Still, He's Seen And Mentally Recorded A lot Of Football Over The YEARS. The Broncos Pass Rush Has Surrendered (Via Trades) A lot Of Talent Over The Pass Two. Bradley A Year Ago, And Von Miller Two Year. The Broncos Finished The Year with 36 Sacks But Traded Away 5.5 With Chubb Mid Season, and They Struggled When He Left. The Defense Can Still Throw Randy Gregory Out There. Still, He's Coming Off Of An Injury Plague Year. He Only Produced Two Sacks After The Broncos Signed Him To A Five Year 70 Million Dollar Contract. He's A Powerful Rusher When he's On His Game. The Broncos Defense Will Rely Heavily On Guys Like Veteran Frank Clark With 5, And Second Year Player Nik Bonito A Speed Rushed Out Of Oklahoma. The Linebackers Unit Under The Tutelage Of Cance Joseph Apparently Found The Answer To Covering Travis Kelce And Breaking The Chiefs Hold On The Division. The New Defensive Scheme Springs From The Speed and Athleticism Of Linebackers Drew Sanders, Josey Jewell, And Alex Singleton And Their Processing Power. The Broncos Usually Deliver.

You Can Count On Their Contribution To Winning, But The Success Of This Team Hinges On The Offense. I Haven't Bought Into The Sean Payton Turnaround. Last Season, the Hit New Lows For Offensive "Ineptitude," the lowest-scoring Team in the league, had 11 Games of Defense. The Broncos Themselves Held Wilson Below 17 points. He's The Right coach And The Right Culture But The Broncos Lack Too Many Functionality On Offense. No Number One Receiver, No Trusted Running, No Dominant OFFENSIVE line. You may want to lean in On The Russ Revival, but I don't. Season Prediction, 3-14.  

Kansas City Chiefs 

"Can I Get an Encore? Do You Want More…"—Jay-Z. 

What Have The Chiefs For An Encore? Last Season, The Mahomes-Andy Reid Dynasty Looked Shocked To The Foundation. Facing Down What They and everyone Thought As The Toughest Challenge In The AFC, The Chief "Skrrt" Pass The Bills By A One Possession Difference; nothing Stood Between Those Two Forces of Football Might But A Coin Toss. The Chiefs Had One Victory To Glory, to Redemption. You Have To Look Back On How The Game Nearly Two Years ago Change The Course For The Chiefs And Ultimately Won Them Another Ring. When The Chiefs Face The Bengals, I Think Everyone But The Bengals Expected a fOregone Conclusion. When The Chiefs Went Uo 21-3, The Embarrassment Of That late-season loss They Suffered At The Hands Of Bengals Wore Off. The Bengals Didn't Belong With The Chiefs, Like Apollo Creed Facing A Relatively Unknown Rocky Balboa The Two Fighters Didnt Belong In The Ring, The Bengals Couldn't Go The Distance. The Chiefs Took A 21-3 Lead Everything We Presumed Became Validated, Two Distinctly Different Class Of Fighter Brought Together By Fate And Tied Her Interest To The Chiefs, So Things Seem. But Fate Turned, The Bengals Had That Look In Their Eye, As The Chiefs Swang For Knockout Blows Fate Created Ripples And Openings For The Bengals To Reach Through.

In The Rocky Movie, Apollo Tells The Titular Star, Rival Turn, Ally That They Share A Killer Instinct, A Switch That Can't Turn Off Or On, They Have To Stand Right In The Middle Of The Challenge. The Chiefs needed To Turn The Instinct Off But Couldn't. Instead, They Flipped Into Overkill. Suddenly Taken Aback With The Chiefs Insistent Barrage, Fate Turned and Gave Her Hand To The Bengals And The Chiefs, Who Took One Possession And Won Lost Their One Possession And The Game In It all. "Usually, when you lose the coin flip to those guys, you're going home," Joe Burrow Said After an 18-point. So Ended The Story Of Those Chiefs, The Team Would Never Return The Same. In The Off Season, The Chiefs Let Go Of Star Receiver Tyreek Hill. Whether The Hill Trade Sprang From Financial Differences Or A Change In Philosophy Is A Matter of Opinion, But After The Chiefs, One of the most explosive Offenses Would Have To Look In The Mirror And Go In A Different Route. 

The Chiefs Had To Get Their Edge Back. The Only Way To Retrieve a Lost Edge is to Travel To The Beginning Of The Offenses And Reintroduce Themselves To What Worked Well. One Of The Most I Picture The Chiefs Like The Wounded Beast Of The Book Of Revelations, With One Of His Heads Fatally Lost. One Of The Most Explosives Teams In Football, 100 Of Speed Routes Less Effective. No Matter How Much Andy Reid Talk Up Mecole Hardman, His Speed Couldn't Match The Tyreek Hill Effect On Defenses. Patrick Mahomes Still Put Forth Arguably The Best Season Of His Career. Defenses Couldn't Keep Up With Mahomes's More Permeating Style Of Target Sharing, The Chiefs Never Had a Designated Number One Aside From Travis Kelce. Mahomes's average Depth Of Target Increased To The Highest Mark Of His Career When Everyone Thought No Tyreek Meant No Deep Play. The Chiefs Took A More Steadied Potent Attack, Absorbing Lots Of Yards After The Catch. The Offense Still Featured The Same Skeleton, a lot Of Quick boundary Route, Overs, and Slants That Later Set Up, But The Flesh And Blood Form Differently According To How Mahomes Directed It. Mahomes 5200 Passing Yards, and No One Expected That From Him This Season.

Mahomes led the League In EPA, All while spreading The Ball Around To Multiple Receivers, Most Of Whom He Played With For The First Time. Only Tight End Travis Kelce Had More Than 100 Targets, 110 Exact, Over 1000 Yards(1338) And Double Digit Touchdowns. Travis Kelce, The supercharged Slot Receiver At Tight End, Gives Every Team He Faces Fits Because Of How Easily He Moves At 6'5 Nobody Matches Up To Him. If The Chiefs Had A Number One Receiver, Juju Smith-Schuster Had That Spot, And He's Now Moved On To New England. The Chiefs Now Consist Of Sky Moore, Marquez Valdez-Scantling, Kadavius Toney, Justyn Ross, Rookie Rashee Rice, And Richie James. The Chiefs Will Again Approach The Wide Receiver Position With A Committee Rather than One Unique Star, With Trust That Their Half Billion Dollar Quarterback Can Lead Them To Another Lombardi. The Chiefs Offense Won't Have Eric Beinemy's Input. Mahomes And Beinemy Butted Heads Last Season Over Play Calls, And The Chiefs Choose Not To Retain The Now Commanders Offensive Coordinator. The Offensive Line, One Of The Best In The Game, Only Giving Up 16 Sacks On The Season, Lost A lot Of Talent With The Departure Of Orlando Brown Jr. who Took For The Rival Chiefs. They Replaced Him With Donavan Smith From The Bucs. Who'll Attempt To Protect Patrick Mahomes After Protecting Tom Brady These Past Three? In A Argument For The Status Of "Goat," Commentators Like To Bring Up The Names Mahomes And Brady, But The Two Have Few Similarities How The Two Play the Game. For One, Mahomes Likes To Hold The Ball for nearly 3 Seconds Long, Compared To Brady, Who Likes To Move Things Quickly. Can An Aging Smith Adjust To Blocking A Little Longer? Elsewhere Along The Line, Andrew Wylie Moved On, He Gave Up Nine Sacks Last Year. He's Replaced By Jawan Taylor From The Jags. One Rival Takes Your Tackle, And You Take Another From Another Rival. The Line Will Block For Running Back Isiah Pacheco Fresh Off His First 1000-Yard Season (Including Playoffs). The Chiefs Offensive Line Finish Third in Rushing Blocking Win Rate Last Season. 

The Defense: 

Historically, The Chiefs Have suffered From (And With) "Historically" Poor Defenses. The Side Of The Ball Never Matches The Offense, But They Have All World Talent. The Chris Jones Holdout Amplifies The Chiefs Weaknesses Because Losing One Of Your Best Players For The Beginning Of The Season Sucks, Losing The Second Best Player At His Position In The Whole League Leaves A Mammoth Size Hole zip Front In The Pass Rush and The Run Stuff. Along The Pass Rush, Guys Like George Kalaftis Will Have To Step Up. Last Season, The Chiefs Played The Run Great And The Pass Average, But I Don't Think That Has Validity With Jones's Absence. I Like The Secondary, Lead By Safety Justin Reid, With Talented Outside Guys Like Trent McDuffie, Who Could Emerge As An Ascending Corner After An Injury Shortened First Season.

 Season Predictions: The Chiefs Haven't Surrendered This Division In Patrick Mahomes's Time With The Team. The Super Bowl has Never Played a road Playoff Game In His Life, Seven Consecutive Division Titles, and He Doesn't Breathe Air Outside Of Arrowhead This Year, 14-3.  

Los Angeles Chargers 

I Need Someone To Keep Me Accountable This Season Because I am Too Tempted To Pick The Chargers In The AFC, Even Though We All Know How Gifted They're With Falling Short Of Even Generous Expectations. The End of The Chargers Season Didn't Just Feel Dejecting For Everyone Watching And Expecting The Chargers Move Into The Next Round. The Jags Coming From Behind To Erase The Belief That The Chargers Could Keep Their Collective Hold On Their Pandora's Box Of Bad Luck Felt So "Chargers" But In A Way Felt such a perfidy For how the "Win" Just Got Swept Away From Under Them. "I Think About Ot Every Day," said Head Coach Branden Staley. 

Last Season, The Chargers Offense Suffered A Litany Of Injuries From Wide Receiver To O-Line To Corner and Edge Rusher, Then Somehow Making Playoffs. Banking On Health In The NFL That's Like Banking On Good Weather On A Beach Day, And Unless You Live In The Bahamas, You Can't Say For Sure. This Offseason, The Chargers Placed Their Bank On Quarterback Justin Herbert. Thanks To His Big Arm, He's Got One Of The Biggest Banks At Position, But Herbert Has To Bounce Back From A Relatively Down Year Based On Expectations For Him. With So Many Of His Top Weapons Missing Games, I Don't Think Herbert Ever Formed A Strong Union With The Rest Of The Group Of Weapons. Herbert Will Have A New Offensive Coordinator For The First Time In His Career, With Kellen Moore Taking Play Calling And Play Design, And He Might Work Well In Play. The Chargers Have A Plethora of Skilled Weapons To Work With, And Moore Likes To Open His Offense. In 2021, With A Competent Dak Prescott And A More Effective Zeke Elliot, The Cowboys had The Top Offense In The League According To PFF With Moore At The Helm. This Moore's Offense Didn't Quite Live Up To Expectations With Moore's Name Floated Around As A Head Coaching Candidate. With The Chargers, More Has A Chance To Redeem And Reinvent Himself. I Spoke Of The Chargers Injury Woes, And The Wide Receivers Got Hit The Most.

Long Time Star Keenan Continues To Surge In Age and His Health Decline. Known Talents Like Josh Palmer and De'andre Carter Have Stepped In For Allen, But They Lack The Savvy and Skill At Just Getting Open. The CharyWill Have To Lean In More On Mike Williams As The Number One Receiver. He's Coming off A Season With Spectacular High Rising Catches, But One Also Straddled With Injury. Rookie First Rounded Quentin Johnston Struggled With Drops In The Preseason, But Jamar Chase Struggle With Drops Ahead Of His Debut And We Know How That Turned Out. The Running Game, Who Am I Kidding The Chargers Shroud Their Quarterback And Running-back with Good Blockers. The Offensive Line Struggled With Injury, But They Get Tackle Rashawn Slater Back To Join Zion Johnson, And Jamaree Salyer Kicks Inside, This Chargers Line Ranks Top 10. 

The Chargers Need Defensive Health More Than Anything, Especially From Stars Joey Bosa and JC Jackson. Bosa, Even In Healthy Snaps, Looked Ineffective, Like A Paid Actor Trying To SERVE in The Place Of Joey Bosa. The Chargers Signed JC Jackson Last Offseason, Hoping He'd Fit In The Missing Puzzle Piece For The Chargers' Defense Instead, He Missed Nearly All Of Last Season With A Leg Injury And Didn't Look His Elite Self In His Brief Snaps And He's Continued To Struggle With injury. His Absence Hurts The Defense But Set Ascending Name Asante Samuel In Tow Takeover The Top Duties. He's Prime For A Big Year. Trying To Judge A Team Based On Whether The Health Sustains Throughout The Year Feels Skittish Like A Mysterious Specter Will Visit My Room Week 13 Telling "You Were Warned Of Trusting Them." Season Prediction: I Like The Chargers, 11-6. 

Las Vegas Raiders 

Josh McDaniels Entered The 2023 Season With His Coaching Future On The Line. He's A Coaching Name, Even In His Second Season In His Second Coaching Stints, That Everyone, Columnist, Thought Provokers, Your Football Invested Grandmother Like To Hang Over The Ledge As The Season Starts As If No One Wants To See Him Keep The Job. Coming Off Of Last Season's Playoff Appearance, The Raiders Followed A Trail Of Expectations Into This Season. With Better Stability Could The Raiders Challenge The Chiefs In The AFC West. After Kansas City Looked Weakened last offseason. Of Course, things With Chiefs Turned Out Differently Than Anyone Expected, But Back Then Anything Could Happen. But The Raiders Need A New Head Coach, The Old One Kind Fell Apart Entering Success's Atmosphere. McDaniels, Fresh Off Of Leading The Patriots To The Second Ranked Offense In Football(PFF) Won The Job. McDaniels Left Quite The Indelible Mark On The AFCWest Last Time He Coached In The Division. He Needed More Than A Decade To Recover. He Came Back and Took Over The Raiders Just In Time For The Best Receiver In Football To Request A Trade To His Childhood Team, To His Best Friend, But Things Didn't Work Together Early In The Season. Even The Greatest Weapon Appear Dull If You Don't Use Them Properly.

McDaniels Hadn't Worked with a Receiver Of Adam's Caliber Since Randy Moss, And Adding A Singular Force To A System Produces Ripple Effects. I Can't Speak For Everyone, But The Derek Carr Davante Adams Team Up Would Work Immediately. Now, one Year Later, They're Torn Asunder. Some Players Say MCDaniels Holds Everyone On The Team to Zone Standard, A Standard Derek Couldn't Live Up To What McDaniels. I Hated Witnessing Carr Leave The Raiders Because He Felt So Synonymous With The Franchise. McDaniels Went In Search Of His Guy, Jimmy Garrapalo, Who always Seems To Have a Market. He's An Arm, Mind, and Chiseled Jaw Line Always In Demand, But He's Coming Off Of Another Shortened Season.

Garropalo Knows The Offense, He Knows The Calls, And Now He Needs To Build Rapport With The New Digs. If Davante Adams Looked Like He Lost A Step Last, She Picked Up His Steps As The Year Moved Forward. The Raiders Have One Of The Best Receiving Corps In The League. Jacobi Meyers Comes Over From New England To Provide A Secondary Stabilizing Force To Adams. The Former Un-drafted Coming Off Of Leading The Pats In Receiving Yards Three In A Row. He's A Smooth Mover Who Works Great Over The Middle. Hunter Renfrow Had A Down Year With So Much Of The Interest Orbiting Adams. Renfrow Played Only 10 Games and recorded 330 Receiving Yards, Way Down From The 1096 Pace He Set A Year Ago.

The Raiders Moved On From Darren Waller, Another Franchise Stalwart At Tight End. He's Replaced By The Collective Of Austin Hooper And Rookie Micheal Mayer. I Believe Jimmy Garropalo's The Right Marksman To Make This Talent Group Pass Catchers Fit Together. The Raiders Have No Overlap In Receiver Types Like We Used to See In Tampa Last Year Or In Kansas City This Year. All Of The Play Design Fit, And A lot Of the Guys Can Mov Around And Play Different Spots On Demand. He's Playing Behind A Brutish "Offensive Line." Kolton Miller Is An Improved Player and a Good Run Blocker, But The Rest Of The Line Has A Lot To Prove. Thankfully, Jimmy G Gets The Ball Out Of His Hands Fast, And That's A Skill Adams And Meyers Can Acclimate With. The Offense Will Also Lean In On All World Running back Josh Jacobs. Jacobs Created Quite The Stir This Off-season As Contract Talk Between him and The Raiders Broke Down Before The Tag Deadline. Jacobs Signed a New Year Deal that added Another 2 Million To His Contract. How Motivated Will Jacobs Approach This Season. Repeating His Career Success Of Last Season will Require More Than Just Dollar Signs. I Don't See Jacobs Repeating His League Rushing Feat. The Last Back To Lead The League In Rushing In Back To Back Seasons, Derrick Henry(2019,2020). I liked Jacobs As A Runner, But He's No Derrick Henry. Defensively, The Raiders Have Never Had any points To Praise Of Beside Maxx Crosby, but this Year could be Different. Rookie Tyree Wilson Joins The Defensive Line To Add Another Force To Aide Maxx Crosby.

The Chandler Jones Signing Remains A Disappointment Hopefully, The Raiders Can Draw More From The Young Rusher. Historically, The Raiders have Fielded Terrible Defense. According To The Athletic's "Quarterback Betrayal Index," A Measure of The difference between The Quarterback's EPA and That Of The Defense OR Special Teams, Derek Carr Ranked 14th In His Career As A Raider. What's More, How Many First Round Picks The Raiders Threw Away Trying To Resolve The Issue With Guys Like Garson Conley and Damon Arnette. The Talk Of The Offseason Suggests The Raiders Expect A big Jump From That Side Of The Ball That Generated Little Impact In Terms Of Wins. A lot Of Talent Resides In The West. Where Does This New Look Raiders Team Stand, Season Prediction, Not Much Improvement, 6-11.