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Huddlegeeks.com Fantasy Football
By Jason Clarke, Thu Dec 8th
Have you ever watched one of those home makeover shows where the‘crew’ from whatever show it is, takes a seemingly ordinaryhouse or room and makes it into some fantastic dream room thatthe owner usually is ecstatic about? Al Davis must have watcheda few of these shows while his team was sitting home for theplayoffs and decided he could do the same for his offense. Hefollowed the same basic premise but spent a little more than theusual show and their ‘crew’ does. The Raiders offense in 2004 had enough talent to be average, butnever really made fantasy owner think, “I’m drafting someRaiders this year!” They finished ranked 18th in the league intotal scoring offense, scoring an average of 20.0 point pergame. They had an offense that could win some games if theyplayed above average defense. Problem was, Oakland finishedranked 30th in total defense so more offense was needed inRaiderland and in a hurry. The Raiders had some building blocks for a good offense like astrong-armed quarterback in Kerry Collins, a stud of a LTprospect in Robert Gallery, some athletic tight ends in DougJolley and Teyo Johnson and a playmaking WR in Jerry Porter. Thebiggest problem was the fact that the Raiders did not have a guyin the backfield that they could hand the ball to 25 times agame and make a difference. They also needed another receiver totake the pressure and coverage off of Porter. Defenses couldconcentrate on shutting down the talented receiver and not worryabout getting burned by any of the other Raiders receivers. Attimes, defenses would drop seven defensive backs into coverageto stop Porter because they had no fear of the Raiders groundgame.
What a difference and off-season makes! The Raiders head into the 2005 season as, on paper, one of themost improved teams in the NFL and possibly one of the mostexplosive offenses in the league as well. Their biggestacquisition, by far, was the trade of LB Napolean Harris and afirst round draft pick for Minnesota WR Randy Moss. Moss is thebiggest playmaker at the wide receiver position
in the gametoday. He is the kind of player that is tailor made for thetraditional Raiders downfield attack. Opposing defenses areno-longer going to be able to concentrate on shutting Porterdown when they have to worry about the big play ability of Moss. Both receivers will allow the Raiders offense to stretch thefield and create other opportunities for members of the offense.Safeties will not be able to cheat up to the line of scrimmagefor run support because of fear of the deep ball that Collinscan deliver to Porter or Moss. This should also open up themiddle of the field and allow the tight ends to make plays whenmatched up on slower linebackers. The Raiders other big acquisition was running back LamontJordan. The Raiders signed Jordan to a 5-year contract to be thefeature back in their offense. Jordan was a very productive backwhen he was given opportunities with the Jets. He was theprimary backup to Curtis Martin and the Jets ground game seemedto never miss a beat when Jordan was toting the rock. He rushedfor a total of 479 yards with a gaudy 5.2 yards per carryaverage. The only question about Jordan is if he can produce atthat level for an entire season when he is getting 25-30 carriesa game. He will certainly get an opportunity to do that as aRaider where his main competition for carries will be eitherAmos Zereoue or Justin Fargas. Neither seems likely to put upmuch of a fight. Jordan and many of his teammates should be a hot commodity cometime for your fantasy draft. The Raiders offense figures to beexplosive and their defense still figures to be a sieve. This isa great recipe for fantasy production! I just can’t wait forthat first Raider vs. Chiefs game. I’m thinking to theover/under on that game to be somewhere near 100! So, the money has been spent and the improvements have beenmade. Only time will tell if the improvements will satisfy theowner. One thing is for sure, in the eyes of fantasy footballowners the Raiders seem to have completed an extreme offensivemakeover. About the author:Jason is the editor and webmaster for Huddlegeeks.com, arespected analysis website. http://huddlegeeks.com
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