Last year, in the 5th round, the Raiders took a chance on a talented but inconsistent wide receiver out of Tennessee named Denarius Moore. Moore had had some success in college but changes in coaching had caused him to be less productive in his later years, which contributed to his fall to the fifth round.

From the very start of camp, he was the talk of Raider fans and media as well as occasioning comment from many of the players and coaches for his speed, sure hands and acrobatic receptions.

I wanted to get a good idea of Moore's strengths and weaknesses so I went to multiple games from last season to see what I could find.

Usually for a players Tale of the Tape I try to watch 2-3 games if the player is a starter because that usually gives me a good idea of what that player can do. If the player is a backup, I'll watch more to get a larger sample size but I'll go through the game logs and watch plays that the player is in, not every play.

Moore proved to be somewhat difficult, however, so I ended up watching 5 games of his film. I watched 3 games with Jason Campbell as the QB - namely weeks 2, against Buffalo, 3, against the Jets & 4 against New England - and then 2 with Palmer under center - weeks 10 & 11, against San Diego and Minnesota, respectively.

The primary reason that Moore's Tale of the Tape was more difficult than many others is that he does so many things well. I try very hard to find strengths and weaknesses on the players I review and an all positive tape-review isn't accurate. Therefore it was important to watch a large sample size of plays to get as good an idea of what Moore can do as a player.

TFDS has been discussing the many changes in both personnel and coaching this offseason in an effort to prime Raiders fans for what to expect with the new team, both positive and negative.

Recently, we discussed the West Coast offense and how the Quarterback and Wide Receivers are likely to be used in the new scheme brought by Offensive Coordinator Dennis Allen.

Allen is not the only new coordinator, however. The Raiders Defensive unit will also be gettin a make-over with the addition of Jason Tarver.

If Al Davis loomed large over the decisions of the offensive coaches every Sunday - and he certainly did - his presence was much more noticable on the defensive side. Woe to the coordinator who strayed too far from Davis' preferred 4 man rush with man coverage on the outside.

Davis didn't outlaw blitzing or anything like that but he wasn't a big believer in them. If they worked, he would allow them but if they were not working the defensive coordinator had to understand Davis' displeasure with his choices.

With Mr. Davis' passing, so too passed the Raiders reliance on one single scheme. Tarver is likely to bring a much more varied approach to defense that will attempt to confuse and confound their opponents with disguised schemes and fronts.

It has been said that the Raiders intend to transition to a West Coast style offense under offensive coordinator Greg Knapp.  There are a lot of questions about what the offense will look like.  TFDS is doing our best to answer questions on the offense – first by looking at Knapp's tendencies as an offensive coordinator for the Seahawks in 2009 and then looking at Houston's offense last season.  Knapp was the QB coach in Houston in 2010 and 2011.

Now, we will be talking about West Coast offense (WCO) philosophies and tendencies as a primer to discussing personnel fits with the Raiders.


                                                                                                                            A page from Walsh's 1985 49ers playbook

After letting this week's OTA session and other moves permeate a bit, I thought I'd weigh in on some thoughts about the recent actions of the team and performance of the players.  If you'd like a recap of what happened, a good one is here.

Player moves:

The team added QB Kyle Newhall-Caballero, an undrafted free agent from Brown.  Newhall-Caballero is 6'3", 214 lbs.  He threw during the media session on Tuesday and showed a good arm.

Even so, he'd have to really blow the team away to make the squad.  Instead, he's likely playing for the practice squad as the scout team QB.

Head coach Allen indirectly confirmed that he's a long shot to make the team saying, "That was the plan all along, to bring in a 4th quarterback. We wanted to bring 4 to camp, to make sure we did have 4 arms and I think Kyle will do a nice job there."

Newhall-Caballero has selected to wear number 10.

My informal count of the squad is that the Raiders are currently carrying 87 players.  They are allowed up to 90 players.

OTA notes:

Because there is no contact in the practice sessions, most of the more interesting OTA bits come from the interviews afterwards, especially with coach Allen.

In his interview he weighed in on a lot of different topics.  Here were some of the more interesting topics for your consumption:

This off-season the Raiders traded for former Carolina Panther's RB Mike Goodson in a rare player for player trade, giving up the rights to OL Bruce Campbell for Goodson.

Goodson had hardly any opportunities in Carolina, being buried on the depth chart. In fact, during the 2011 season he did not carry the ball once. His only stat for 2011 was a reception that gained 4 yards.

In 2010, Goodson was able to help his team much more. He played in all 16 games that season and started 3 when both DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart were out with injury.

It was to those games in which he was a starter that I turned for his film review because it gave me the best idea of how he would hold up over a game and how complete a back he was.

Specifically, I looked at Weeks 10 and 11 of the 2010 season, with Carolina facing off against Tampa Bay and Baltimore, respectively.

I took a couple of week sabbatical to catch up on life but the world of football keeps churning.  I wanted to weigh in on some of the recent actions, etc, taken by the Raiders in the meantime.

Transactions:
-Signing of Matt Leinart – those who follow this site consistently know that I felt that Pryor was unlikely to be ready for the primary backup spot.  If he is, that's icing on the cake.  If not, Leinart can be a functional backup.  

Leinart has not met his top 10 draft status but hasn't been as bad as many believe.  He was beat out by Kurt Warner, who played at a very high level in his time in AZ and moved to Houston as a backup.  The Houston coaching staff was very confident in him last season when starter Matt Schaub was injured but he, also, was injured, suffering a shoulder injury almost immediately in his first game. 

However, the Raiders new offensive coaching staff has familiarity with him and he will be familiar with the protection schemes of the Raiders.  He also is comfortable with Palmer having been behind him when they were both at USC.

The Raiders first minicamp, for rookies only, starts tomorrow.  This got me wondering how many positions look likely taken by veterans and how many would be based upon competition in training camp.

The lists below were generated based on salary, previous production, my own opinions of play and, sometimes, just a gut feeling.  They are in no way scientific.

I only included 3rd and 4th round draft picks in the extremely likely because it's no lock that all of the 6 draft picks will make the roster, but it is extremely likely that the 3rd and 4th round selections will.

Also, it's almost certainly a given that some of the players on this list will get injured in camp which will open up some positions, potentially.  There are always surprise cuts each year, as well.

Take a look and let me know what you think - either in the comments or on Twitter