OAKLAND RAIDERS
Mired in the Middle

A mere eight days before a crucial Monday-night season opener against the division champion San Diego Chargers, the Raiders showed they were serious about wanting to get better. After another year in which it seemed Captain Al has been more intent on making points to the media than scoring them on the field — i.e., "As you will see via my overhead projector, Lance Kiffin, the coach I recently hired, is a compulsive liar and phony" — he showed the other side of his Jekyll/Hyde routine by trading for veteran Pro Bowler Richard Seymour to shore up a hopelessly overmatched D-line. Whether false or real, the move instantly gave us diehards a bit of real hope after another preseason of watching our defense unable to tackle anybody carrying an inflated pigskin.

I love this trade, actually, even if Seymour is slightly over the hill and in the last year of his contract, because we gave up only a draft pick Al would have wasted it on some talentless sprinter anyway. Sure, the Patriots will probably use it to draft Tom Brady's successor, but that is irrelevant.

In fact, if Al could trade all our future picks for solid players, I would endorse that, as drafting is simply not his strength anymore. When you add to it that the Raiders usually pick in the top eight and those super high picks are notoriously overpaid for the contribution they make in a team sport, this is simply a steal.

(Economists have shown that, unlike in basketball, having top NFL draft picks is a burden on the worst teams rather than a boon; it is almost impossible for players taken there to make a good return on investment, while a bust, like Niners QB Alex Smith, drafted No. 1 overall, can cripple an organization for years. While the expected end of the salary cap in 2010 will make this slightly less of a problem for teams, the Raiders are struggling financially and can't be too sanguine about paying $50 million to a merely adequate 22-year-old with a great 40 time, like this year's No. 7 pick, Darius Heywood-Bey. Fans, including this one, love these top picks, but the fact that teams find it almost impossible to trade down shows their true worth. A better aid to crappy teams would be an extra sandwich pick or two later in the draft.)

Seymour joins overpaid returnees Tommy Kelly and Gerard Warren, and free agent signee Greg Ellis — a grizzled ex-Cowboy who earned my respect by calling out his fellow Raiders for partying the night before an embarrassing preseason 45-7 shellacking at the hands of the Saints — on a line that was gashed repeatedly all preseason by every team's third- and fourth-string running backs. Whether he simply sinks to the level of his new peers or brings some Patriots professionalism to the line remains to be seen, but it is definitely worth giving up a draft pick for a guy who is not already a known cancer like previous high-profile arriviste busts Randy Moss, Javon Walker and DeAngelo Hall.

Hopefully Al will quickly follow up this move with some more: 2012 No. 1 for a top linebacker, 2013 No. 1 for a solid right tackle and 2014 No. 1 for a decent nickel cornerback. Because, unfortunately, there are still quite a few glaring holes on the depth chart of a team that is young but has not yet shown itself to be particularly hungry.

The Good News: Running back and tight end continue to be real strengths for the Raiders, who even unearthed a gem of a backup to TE Zach Miller in sixth-round draft pick Brandon Myers and watched Louis Rankin tear it up on the Seahawks to land the coveted (haha) fourth-string RB spot behind Darren McFadden, Michael Bush and Justin Fargas. These guys provide an effective safety valve for franchise savior JaMarcus Russell who, while still occasionally appearing incapable of throwing away the ball in a timely manner, continues not to embarrass himself without exactly ripping anybody a new one. The O-line can adequately run block, while on the D-line coaches are high on undrafted rookie Harvard tall dude Desmond Bryant; sure he only made the All-Ivy League's SECOND team but he instantly becomes the smartest human in the Raiders organization and seems to have some pocket-collapsing skills to boot.

The Bad News: Simply put, the Raiders are, at best, merely adequate in the trenches, where football games are won and lost. Russell will never blossom into the Star Wars stud he was picked to be unless he gets more time to check down his receivers, something journeymen like starting RT Cornell Green are simply not able to guarantee. On the D, meanwhile, if Kelly is unable to finally live up to his massive contract, Seymour may simply become the next Warren Sapp: An aging Hall-of-Famer who loses his dignity and skills down on the marshy Coliseum turf. Finally, the Raiders are seriously thin — an injury to LT Mario Henderson, Pro Bowl cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha or beleaguered middle linebacker Kirk Morrison would be devastating with no viable backups currently healthy.

The Raiders' division is itself not deep this year, however, which means that any definition of a successful season probably starts with at least six wins and a few breakthrough victories against the rival Chargers and Broncos, now without Raiders-killing coach Mike "The Rat" Shanahan. If Russell maintains his slow but steady growth, one of the rookie receivers emerges and the Raiders can at least slow opposing run games, a .500 record would be possible and satisfying.