Now that camp is over and the Raiders have played three-fourths of their preseason games it's time to look at who will make the final roster for the team.  Projecting the final roster is always tricky and there are never enough spots for every player that you think can succeed.  For my projections I tried to look at who I think has shown their skills as well as what positions need the most depth, etc.  There are always surprises in the final roster but here is who I think has the best shot:

OL: 8

- Jared Veldheer, Cooper Carlisle, Stephon Wisniewski, Mike Brisiel, Khalif Barnes, Joseph Barksdale, Tony Bergstrom & Alex Parsons

Why these players?: Veldheer and Wizniewski are both up and comers and possible Pro Bowlers as soon as this season. Mike Brisiel was the Raiders top priority in free agence and signed a 5 year deal. Obviously, these 3 are locks to make the roster.

Khalif Barnes and Cooper Carlisle were both resigned to 1 year contracts. They have both run with the 1st team offense starting in OTAs, running through minicamp & training camp without any real open competition – Carlisle at LG and Barnes at RT.

Joseph Barksdale and Tony Bergstrom are in their 2nd and 1st years, respectively. Both have zone blocking experience and both are cheap. They've also both shown promise. They are extremely likely to make the team as backups.

I'm guessing only 8 OL players although the team could take 9 for the final squad. I have Alex Parsons in because he's versatile enough to play guard or center. He's been running with the first team this offseason at Center in place of injured Stephon Wisniewski.

If the Raiders take a ninth offensive lineman, I'd expect a tackle to be retained. At this time, only Barksdale seems likely to make the roster and be able to play at LT. Rookie Bergstrom played RT in college and could potentially sub in, there, if needed but all his work has been at guard - both sides - in camp.

In the third week of the 2012 preseason, the Raiders won to over the Detroit Lions 31-20.

The third preseason game is generally considered to be the most important because the starters play for the longest period of time and the coaching staff actually puts in a game plan to prepare.

The defense - and especially the run defense - looked extremely solid. The 1st team run defense allowed less than 10 yards to Detroit's running backs.

For the offense, the Raiders showed good running power most of the game. Starting RB Darren McFadden ran hard and ended with 9 carries for 27 yards and a TD and added 2 catches for 11 yards. McFadden has long been considered one of the best RBs in the league as long as he remains healthy. He has yet to play an entire season, however.

In relief of McFadden, the Raiders turned to second year speedster Taiwan Branch, playing for the first time this preseason after suffering a hamstring pull earlier in camp. Jones showed his breathtaking speed, with multiple runs for more than 10 yards. Jones ended with an average of 5 yards/carry after running for 50 yards on 10 carries. It's likely he earned the number 2 RB spot with his performance tonight.

Mike Goodson, playing with the 3rd string offense, looked good at points, too, but not enough to have him back in the conversation to be the primary backup. He still is likely to be on the final roster as the third string running back.

The second article with observations in review of the Raiders second pre-season game with the Cardinals.  Yesterday's piece involved Special Teams and Defense.  Today's will have some thoughts on the offense and specifically the offensive line.

For thoughts on the Raiders during games or throughout the day, follow me on Twitter @AsherMathews

Offense:
I spent the majority of my time in film review focusing on the offense to see why the first team has struggled as much as they have.  Part of the issue, I believe, is that the offensive line is still trying to adjust to the many nuances of the zone blocking scheme.  More on that in a moment.
 
The plays that resulted in the most success for the Raiders are the ones in which there is pre-snap movement. This is not unique to the Raiders, it's actually true for most if not all teams.  Pre-snap movement confuses the defense - they can become confused as to who to key on and that can lead to hesitation or outright mistakes.  Misdirection is an important tool for both offenses & defenses in today's NFL.
 
Knapp seems to understand this and used pre-snap movement a number of times throughout the game.  The presnap movement can be as simple as moving a TE across a formation and seeing how the defense adjusts or can include the FB, RB and wide receivers to confuse and misdirect.

After reviewing the game footage for the pre-season week 2 game against Arizona, here are some additional thoughts.  As always, for live-tweets during the game follow me on Twitter @AsherMathews

This post will cover Special Teams and Defense and a seperate post will cover the Offense in much more detail.

Special Teams:

Just like a game, I'm going to start with the opening kickoff.  KO returns have been handled by Jacoby Ford and he's struggled in this regard.  Part of that is the blocking in front of him which has been poor at times.  Part is that he hasn't shown the skills that made him so dangerous in this area in past years.  I'd say that Ford's injury hurts the Raiders much more in passing game than returns.

However, with Ford out indefinitely at this time with a foot injury it calls into question who will be returning punts and kicks.  On player who has prior experience at kickoff returns is DB Bryan McCann.  I don't know if Bryan McCann can make the final roster because his DB skills are not as good as others but the team may keep him as a dime DB and use him as their KR specialist.

The team is also unsettled at punt returner with Ford's absence and it's not entirely clear who will be taking his place.  McCann could be an option as well as Taiwan Jones who has had some time back there.  The team keeps trying Juron Criner at PR in camp but he's not practiced enough to catch it cleanly, consistently, with a number of drops when fielding kicks.

The Raiders dropped to 0-2 for the 2012 pre-season after losing to the Arizona Cardinals 31-27.

Most observers thought that the 2012 Oakland offense would hit the ground running and it would be the defense that would take time to gel and excel with the new schemes brought in by head coach Dennis Allen and defensive coordinator Jason Tarver.

However through two pre-season games the defense for the Raiders has looked very good and the offense has yet to score a touchdown.

The offense had two big opportunities to do so - the first on their second drive in the mid first quarter. QB Carson Palmer threw up a pass to rookie WR Rod Streater that he wasn't able to come down with but there was a call of pass interference on the play and the Raiders were given First & Goal at the 1 yard line. They were unable to convert in 3 attempts.

In the second, the Raiders 1st team offense again made it down to the goal line - about 3 yards out - and again was unable to advance in multiple downs. The team settled for fieldgoals by Sebastian Janikowski and he tacked another 46 yarder as well, all in the 1st half. Most of the starters played the entire first half which was the amount of time Allen had scheduled for them to play.

I took a look at the first quarter of the game, wanting to look at some of the first team and into the second team to get some thoughts.

-On the kickoff, Dan Bailey's placement was poor. I question whether Ford should've fielded it because the ball came down right near the sideline and short of the goal line area.  If he hadn't fielded it and it had taken a favorable bounce out of bounds the team would've started at the 40 after a penalty.

But, on the flip side, Ford was moving forward at a good pace, fielded it cleanly and had the return team given him a crease he could've had a great return as he was already at about the 10 or 15. The return team gave him absolutely nothing and he was swarmed over by Cowboys almost immediately.  The special teams bears some watching in future games.

-Darren McFadden had 38 yards on 3 touches which obviously bodes well.  His first, a 4 yard run round the right end was a good run but nothing amazing.  The next play was an 18 yard reception that looked good.What struck me was that McFadden could have actually gotten more yards had he followed his blocking a bit more.

The play started with McFadden in a shotgun formation to the left of Palmer but prior to the snap he moved to the right outside wide receiver position with Jacoby Ford in the R slot position to his left.  The linebacker that was assigned McFadden moved out with him indicating man covg.

Raiders head coach Dennis Allen updated the status of some of the team's injured players after practice yesterday in advance of Fridays's game with the Arizona Cardinals.

First, injured RB Mike Goodson, who was out with a neck injury following a very scary collision during a practice with pads last week returned to practice and is set to get his first playing time in Silver & Black tomorrow.

Goodson has been a positive force throughout the offseason and his enthusiasm for playing bubbled to the surface when asked about the game as he gushed, "I can't wait.  I can't wait.  I cannot wait."  Goodson appeared to be at full strength in practice and with both a CT and MRI coming back negative on injury to his neck he should be in line for a number of carries.