{"id":24086,"date":"2023-07-22T03:31:08","date_gmt":"2023-07-22T07:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=24086"},"modified":"2023-07-22T03:31:10","modified_gmt":"2023-07-22T07:31:10","slug":"taking-stock-las-vegas-raiders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/nfl\/taking-stock-las-vegas-raiders\/","title":{"rendered":"TAKING STOCK: LAS VEGAS RAIDERS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BY ADAM GREENE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was so much promise for the Las Vegas Raiders as they embarked on their first season with Josh McDaniels as head coach. McDaniels had been a hot prospect, literally on every NFL team\u2019s shortlist for the last half decade of offseasons and the Raiders were the team to finally close the deal and get the Super Bowl winning offensive coordinator to take the reins of their team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the rest of the league? Bullet dodged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because McDaniels was possibly even worse as a head coach in his first year with Vegas as he was in his not even two full seasons with the Denver Broncos. The Raiders opened the year 0-3 after making the playoffs under interim head coach Rich Bisaccia. McDaniels, arguably (and, really, no one would argue), fielded a more talented team than Bisaccia and didn\u2019t have the dead albatross of Mike Mayock as his general manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Raiders lost seven of their first nine games to all but get eliminated from playoff contention two weeks before Thanksgiving, including a 25-20 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Jeff Saturday\u2019s NFL coaching debut. That right there is the worst loss for any team, and any head coach, not only in the 2022 season, but maybe even in recent memory. The only contender to that came a month later when McDaniels and the Raiders lost to the Los Angeles Rams led by Baker Mayfield, who hadn\u2019t even been with the team for a week. That loss halted a three-game win streak for Las Vegas and quarterback Derek Carr would only start two more games before McDaniels sent him packing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is a thing that McDaniels does. He did it in Denver with Jay Cutler in 2009. Cutler would go on to lead the Chicago Bears to the playoffs twice and play nine more years in the league.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McDaniels did help the Raiders beat his old team, the New England Patriots, as he also did with the Broncos, but lost three straight to end the year.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carr (who is now with the New Orleans Saints) was the Raiders leading passer, finishing 6-9 and completing 60.8 percent of his passes for 3,522 yards, 24 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. Josh Jacobs led the team and the league in rushing, gaining 1,643 yards and scoring 12 touchdowns. He added 53 receptions for 400 yards. Devante Adams, added in a blockbuster trade with the Green Bay Packers in the offseason, performed as advertised, catching 100 passes for 1,516 yards and 14 touchdowns. Maxx Crosby finished with 12.5 sacks to go with a team-leading 89 tackles, 22 tackles for a loss, four passes defended, three forced fumbles and one fumble recovery. Duron Harmon, Denzel Perryman and Amik Robertson all tied with two interceptions apiece to not only co-lead the team, but literally record the only picks for the defense in the entire season. Harmon, at least, took one to the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LAS VEGAS RAIDERS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2022-23 Record:<\/strong> 10-7<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playoffs:<\/strong> N\/A<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2023 Super Bowl Odds:<\/strong> +5500<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2023 AFC Championship Odds:<\/strong> +3800<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2023 AFC West Odds:<\/strong> +1100<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOW WHAT?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I normally discuss free agent acquisitions later, but the single biggest move of the offseason for Vegas was the acquisition of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo in free agency. As a talent, he and Carr might be a push, but, as a winner, Garoppolo has consistently gotten the job done across the bay in San Fran, even if the fanbase (outside of the local adult film industry) was always eager to run him out of town. Josh Jacobs, a free agent because the team stupidly refused to pick up his fifth-year option, was franchised and, as of this writing, has not signed his tender and is not in training camp. McDaniels wasn\u2019t fired after last season, so that\u2019s definitely bad. Oh, and the team traded away All-Universe tight end Darren Waller for next to nothing after his first injury shortened season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flipping through the Raiders schedule is the exact<\/a> opposite experience you get from the Kansas City Chiefs. Whereas the Chiefs could realistically win every game on their docket, Vegas could conceivable lose all 17 of their contests, regardless of the talent they put on the field. The only thing predictable about this team is that they will underperform their roster. The only outcome that I personally would find surprising is any record over .500 at the end of the season. And, honestly, the reason that\u2019s on the table is the presence of Garoppolo. The dude has never had a losing campaign as a starter. Because of that, if you\u2019re a Raiders fan, prepare yourself for Jimmy G\u2019s foot injury to be a real problem that costs him starts on the field. This is probably an 8-9 team at best, but, really, they could finish 4-13 and I\u2019d just nod my head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE DRAFT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the plus side, with Mayock out of the building the Raiders had a nice draft for the second consecutive season. They opened up with Tyree Wilson, edge rusher out of Texas Tech in the first round, then grabbed Michel Mayer, a first-round talent, at tight end out of Notre Dame. In the third round, they took defensive tackle Byron Young from Alabama and wide receiver Tre Tucker from Cincinnati. They did well the rest of the way too, earning an A- grade<\/a> from me, the best Vegas draft grade that I can honestly remember in a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FREE AGENCY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to bringing in Garoppolo from the 49ers, Vegas added safety Marcus Epps from the Philadelphia Eagles, linebacker Robert Spillane from the Pittsburgh Steelers, cornerback Brandon Facyson from the Indianapolis Colts, backup quarterback Bryan Hoyer from the New England Patriots, long snapper Jacob Bobenoyer from the Denver Broncos, tight end Austin Hooper from the Tennessee Titans, guard Greg Van Roten from the Buffalo Bills, cornerback David Long from the Los Angeles Rams, defensive tackle John Jenkins from the Miami Dolphins, cornerback Duke Shelley from the Minnesota Vikings, safety Jaquan Johnson from the bills, wide receiver Cam Sims from the Washington Commanders and defensive end Jordan Willis from the 49ers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AFC WEST<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kansas City owns this division and I don\u2019t see that changing. The No. 2 team should be the Los Angeles Chargers, but there\u2019s a real chance Sean Payton will right the Broncos\u2019 ship immediately. That means somebody has to finish in fourth place and McDaniels, if history is any indication, will make sure the Raiders are that team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow Adam Greene on Twitter <\/em>@TheFirstMan<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connect with us our socials on <\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Instagram<\/em><\/a> for the latest sports news, viral moments, betting odds and the occasional memes.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY ADAM GREENE There was so much promise for the Las Vegas Raiders as they embarked on their first season…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":7097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[146,159],"class_list":["post-24086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24087,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24086\/revisions\/24087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}