Category: Oakland Raiders

by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–(49ers update)49ers Head coach Jim Tomsula will have his hands full in camp with filling the openings created by 49er players that retired in the off season. They have a lot of positions to fill, first they have to handle the openings created by linebacker Chris Borland and Patrick Willis.

This task is going to be a really tough task as Willis was unexpected and Borland was even more unexpected, more importantly Borland was going to be a replacement for Willis. Then you have Justin Smith on the defensive line and Anthony Davis right tackle who retired.

Davis might be one of the toughest ones to replace because he did it the latest in the off season. Willis and Borland those guys left before the draft so the 49ers were able to account for that through free agency in the NFL draft.

Justin Smith that was later but at the same time the Niners saw the writing on the wall and he’s been around for about 15 years as his retirement was rumored for the last few years. So Smith’s retirement wasn’t necessarily a surprise. Given the other retirements prior to Smith those were difficult to deal with but the Niners were prepared for the loss of Smith.

Oakland Raiders update: The late Kenny Stabler who passed away this pass week at the age of 69 some said that if he was in today’s game he would not make it because of his smaller size and that he couldn’t run away from today’s defenders in the NFL. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Bruce Jenkins said that theory was a bunch of baloney and that Stabler would be more like one of the outstanding quarterbacks in the NFL today. He said that the 49ers Colin Kaepernick for example has only ten percent of Stabler’s instincts.

First of all Jenkins is a great writer but with all due respect it’s a little unfair to compare Kaepernick to Stabler they were two very different players in different times. Stabler this is a guy who won on his grit and determination and his intellect. Stabler was super smart, he wasn’t an athlete in the same mold that Kaepernick is.

Their asked to do different things and that’s kind of a weird comparison to be honest but let’s forget about that, Kenny Stabler was a great quarterback the fact that he’s not in the Hall of Fame is a big sticking point for Oakland Raider fans everywhere and they have a good beef there are plenty of other quarterbacks in the Hall of Fame who weren’t as particularl great as Stabler.

Staber was a great quarterback, it was his on field leadership, his connection with his players, whether it was Fred Biletnikoff, Dave Casper, Cliff Branch, Stabler knew where these guys were going to be on the field to make the big play. Anybody whose seen the highlight reel of the glory days of the Raiders from the 70s knew Stabler was involved in almost every critical play.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below

by David Zizmor

San Francisco 49ers update: 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is a guy whose only looking to improve for the 2015 season he had some success in the league and he certainly has looked good in post season which he demonstrated against the Green Bay Packers a few years ago when he set an NFL rushing record for quarterbacks not just in the playoffs but in the entire history of the NFL.

Kaepernick ran for 180 rushing yards in that Packers playoff game and then in the championship game he won and took them to the Super Bowl, he almost won them a Super Bowl and the following season he beat the Packers in another great post season game. He lost a heartbreaker to the Seattle Seahawks right at the end of regulation.

They made that game close because he ran that game well in the second half, last season a lot of people think he regressed a little bit. His passing numbers were not that great, his rushing numbers were down and he didn’t look quite as good as he had or dynamic as he had in the past. I don’t know if that’s entirely fair, he suffered 55 sacks and that’s a large part of it and that’s because the offensive line didn’t play that well.

Oakland Raiders update: When the Raiders hired a guy like head coach Jack Del Rio your looking for improvement on the defensive side of the ball and that’s what his focus will be on. For Del Rio he’s going to lead the offense and he’s the offensive coordinator not that he’s going to have his fingers all over the offense.

Del Rio is not an offensive guru however he’s the guy known for his defense or let’s say he’s known for his ability to motivate the team. He was able to motivate his team when he was head coach for the Tampa Bay Bucs and they were a team that followed him into battle each week. He’s big on the offensive side of the defense he’s going to rally the troops in Oakland.

The Raiders their a team that’s trying to grow that defense which has been a problem. The offense has some interesting pieces and we talked about this on the show already. They have quarterback Derrek Carr who looks to be a very great young quarterback, they have wide receiver Amari Cooper who they got in the first round in the draft who looks like he’s going to be an excellent receiver.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to his podcast on the 49ers and Raiders below

by David Zizmor

San Francisco 49ers camp update: When the San Francisco 49ers were wrought with four players retiring in the off season and well before their time at that. These were guys who were all starters that’s tough to replace. Anthony Davis is the most recent retiree he retired after the draft the Niners didn’t even have an opportunity to approach their draft with the knowledge that they would replace Davis at right tackle.

The Davis retirement was probably the toughest one of them all. The 2016 draft is going to be in Virginia they did this year’s draft in Chicago it had always been in New York the NFL realized that the draft is a money generator. You just don’t need to do it in New York you could do it anywhere and people will show up.

Chicago was there first choice Chicago is a great town, and anybody whose been there would agree. They have very dedicated fans with the Bears and it’s centrally located you have a lot of people down from Green Bay, Detroit, Indianapolis, and those places are from shouting distance and it’s certainly an easy drive from each other.

What the NFL is doing now is trying to spread the love around and their going to accommodate Washington their the closest team to Virginia. This is going to be a Washington draft it’s not as far away as Philadelphia frankly New York isn’t all that far. Pittsburgh, Carolina, those towns are all relatively close to each other as the draft will be held in Virginia in 16.

Oakland Raiders camp update: Running back Latavius Murray who is expected to take over the starting position from ex-Raider Darren McFadden. Murray who was with the Raiders last season rushed for 424 yards, two touchdowns, while picking up 5.2 yards per carry. He had a strong 2014 season when he was on the field if you were watching the Raiders down the stretch you would notice him, he definitely stood out when he was out on the field.

The issue so far in his career is keeping him on the field, Murray is a guy who has a lot talent and he has to play. Murray has had a series of injuries that’s been a little bit rough but if he continues to improve your talking about a guy who has the talent to be an every down back in the NFL. We saw him make amazing plays last season.

Murray had that one big run against Kansas City this is a guy given the opportunity and given a decent offensive line he could be very successful. It’s still tough to say as I said he needs to stay on the field, the talent level is there the Raiders are very hopeful he doesn’t have Maurice Jones Drew blocking his path to the starting position anymore like he did last year.

This is a guy who has speed, he has power, size, he can be a every down back if he wants he’s a little bit successful. The biggest thing he’s got going for him this year is the offense looks more rounded. The one problem the Raiders had last year was quarterback Derrick Carr was improving but he didn’t have any wide receivers to throw to which meant teams could challenge him.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below

by David Zizmor

This is the most unusual off season for any team the San Francisco 49ers haven’t had to deal with any significant legal issues of late. Ray McDonald is gone he was a member of the Chicago Bears for a short time. The 49ers have had to deal with a string of unexpected retirements, Justin Smith was the only one that was kind of expected.

Patrick Willis, Chris Borland, and Anthony Davis, your talking about three starters there who all retired these are guys at least as far as the NFL is concerned that were not at the end of their careers. Borland was just entering his second season, Willis was going to enter his tenth and Davis was entering his fifth season. Davis was a young guy he was only like 25.

Davis entered the league pretty young in the first place these were all guys who were starters, Willis is a guy who could be in the Hall of Fame someday. Borland was a borderline rookie of the year and Davis made one Pro Bowl were talking about some real high quality starters who all retired without any foreknowledge of the media or the 49ers.

The 49ers didn’t anticipate it, the media didn’t anticipate it either they certainly had no clue that these retirements were coming. So to be able to fill those holes on short notice is really going to bring a lot competition in the 49ers camp this coming July. Davis’ position at right tackle that’s going to be the biggest one because his retirement was well after the draft.

Oakland Raiders update: You look at the Raiders and the Niners and two years ago the Niners were coming off a Super Bowl loss and it looked like they were going to be competitive for a long time. The Raiders were just awful they had no talent on their roster. They were rebuilding about the fifth year in the row and that’s what it seems like.

The Raiders were going nowhere and now the Niners seems to be the team that’s stuck in neutral and nobody seems to know what their doing. The Raiders well I’m not going to sit here and tell you that the Raiders are going to be a playoff team. You look at that team and they have a lot to do. The Raiders have some sort of direction.

They seemed to have an upward trend, they picked quarterback Derek Carr last season in the draft and he got into the starting line up a few games into the season and from the time he started he looked like he was gong to be a good player. Carr seemed to improve over the course of the season, he needed some help the Raiders didn’t have much of a running game.

Their receiving core needed some improvement, the Raiders seemed to address that in the draft and their getting better Carr looks like a long term keeper. It’s not known if he’s going to be a Pro Bowler but he definitely looks like he could be a strong starting quarterback in the NFL. That’s a big deal that’s something that the Raiders haven’t had in a long time.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below