1. What is the Raiders biggest weakness and biggest strength on offense?
That’s a tough question. Because I have not really seen anything on offense I would call a "strength" to be completely honest. They are dead last in yards and points on the season. It’s so bad, it makes this question seem odd. If I had to search to find a strength, I would say James Jones. He has been a positive. Raiders fans really like the potential Derek Carr has shown but at this point it is nothing more than potential.
2. What is the Raiders biggest weakness and biggest strength on defense?
Not much different here than with the same question for the offense. Again, it’s about individual players because not unit is performing well as a whole. Khalil Mack has looked fantastic and Charles Woodson is a freak of nature at 38 years of age. Other than that, it’s been pretty much a travesty.
3. Are you expecting something different from the team with Tony Sparano at the helm instead of Dennis Allen?
The preaching in the off-season was about the Raiders’ commitment to running the ball. That idea went away very quickly once the team started falling behind. The result is the Raiders rushing on just about 30% of their plays which is among the lowest in the NFL. What we know about Sparano is he is an offensive line guy who loves to run the ball. He was the guy who revitalized the Wildcat in Miami a few years back, remember? You should, it was your newly re-signed running back Ronnie Brown who ran it for him in Miami (which I’m sure was a contributing factor to why they just brought him back). So, that’s what I think will happen more often. It will be closer to what Al Davis preached. Run it at them and then throw it over their heads. That’s the plan anyway. The best laid plans…
4. You're Reggie McKenzie and you have a time machine, but it can only go back 9 months. How do you go about re-doing the Raiders offseason?
Let’s see here. Since we’re talking hindsight and Reggie in a time machine… I fire Dennis Allen after last season. I treat my free agents as if I actually want them instead of alienating them and trying to play hardball as if I am still with a winning franchise like the Packers who can afford to play that game. Then, perhaps one or two of them actually get re-signed and stick around instead of having yet more positions unfilled in this already major rebuilding effort. I don’t put all my early free agent signing efforts into an injured player.
5. Can the Raiders beat the Chargers?
I don’t see how. The Chargers right now are on top of their game and the Raiders are just trying to get by on stopgap players and cast-offs until they can build a young core. And that isn’t working out so well at the moment.
Thanks for stopping by, Levi!