It’s the time of year where fans of teams that didn’t make playoffs turn their attention to the draft and look to the future. Unfortunately, Raiders fans are apart of that collective.  Here I give you a look at the top prospects (senior and juniors that have declared to date, only) at every position as we head towards the 2013 NFL draft.  We will post refreshed rankings after the combine,pro days etc.

The first position to address is Quarterback.  While the Raiders may not be in the market for a top prospect, how the quarterbacks are rated will have a large effect on the top of the draft.  The Raiders pick 3^rd and there is a good chance that at least one of the top two selections will be a quarterback.

Quarterbacks:

1.Geno Smith 6’3 220 lbs West Virginia
Has all the tools: the arm, mobility and size to be an elite quarterback in the NFL but he needs to work on his accuracy, footwork and consistency to reach his full potential. When he is “on” he can be a surgeon, cutting up defenses with ease.  If Reggie McKenzie sees Aaron Rodgers in this kid don’t be surprised if he picks him. However, the Raiders may not have a chance at Smith as he very well may be first player picked.
Pro Comparison: Aaron Rodgers

This piece is the third installment of predictions on the future of the Raiders.  Below are the free agents that last pointed to the Raiders and my guesses as to the likelihood of their resigning with the Silver & Black.  To be clear the percentages are completely made up and subjective.  Let me know what you think in the comments or  via Twitter where you can find me @AsherMathews

Phillip Adams, CB – Likelihood of being resigned: 75%.  Adams can be a solid backup and showed some promise when he was thrust into a starting role late in the season. Unfortunately, his skills were unable to be fully gauged as he suffered a concussion that put him on IR for the last week of the season.  That injury concern may actually be an advantage for the Raiders as they can use that in negotiations with Adams’ agent.  Adams is the kind of guy that GM Reggie McKenzie will try to build a team around – young, flashes of talent but inexpensive.

Khalif Barnes – RT – Likelihood of being resigned: 30%. Barnes was initially brought to Oakland to compete to be the team’s left tackle but settled in a right tackle where he’s been slightly below average.  Barnes is a false-start machine, which drives coaching staffs crazy, because he lacks a good first step and so struggles with speed rushers on the edge.  He’s not getting any faster and by the time next season starts he’ll be 31.  McKenzie is likely to look elsewhere for his right tackle for 2013.

The Raiders ended the season the same way they started it – a loss to San Diego.  This loss was not as heartbreaking, however, as the team showed some good things including the play of Terrelle Pryor

Pryor, who had his first career start after having last started in the Sugar Bowl almost exactly two years ago on January 4^th, 2011, was both exciting and erratic but neither of those are surprising.  He was much the same in college.

The team was able to have some sustained drives with him at the helm, however, and he showed good pocket presence and vision downfield.

This piece is the third in a series of pieces in which I try to predict the moves of the Raiders in the 2013 season. In my first two, I predicted changes to the coaching staff and changes to the defense. Now, here are my predictions for the Raiders offense in 2013

ZBS is retained

“I think the zone running scheme is the toughest running scheme in football. I think with…the way that they can stretch you side to side and get you running and then find a crease, turn it north and south with the pads square is going to be a good thing for us from an offensive standpoint. It is a tough scheme and it is not just the zone running scheme. It is the way it is taught in this system has been productive for a long time and so it has always given us trouble…In my mind, it’s the best scheme to run the football that there is.”

These were Raiders head coach Dennis Allen’s comments about how much a believer he is in the blocking system that he brought back to Oakland along with offensive coordinator Greg Knapp.

As I’ve written in a previous predictions piece, I think the likelihood of Knapp returning next year is good.  Since I published that article two weeks ago, the Raiders offense had looked worse and worse and they have not scored a touchdown since that article was posted.  I’m not yet ready to recant my prediction but this week is certainly crucial to Knapp’s bid to return next year, I think.

Regardless of whether he returns, however, I predict the zone blocking scheme stays.  Allen’s quotes, above, are a testimony to how strongly he feels about the zone blocking scheme.  He’s a defensive minded coach so he is coming from the standpoint of what he would least like to defend against.

While I think it’s more than possible that Knapp goes I do not see Allen completely scrapping the zone system.  After all, zone blocking definitely does work.  It’s being used in a number of teams in the league right now.  If Allen believes, as he states, that zone blocking is “the toughest” and “the best” scheme that exists for running the ball, he’ll likely not leave it so quickly.

The Force was not with the Raiders again last Sunday. I'd like to tell you it was due to something different I haven't told you before. I'd like to tell you it was a loss that really meant something to the players. I'd like to tell you it will never happen again… but I just can't tell you that.

To be honest, I've had a bad feeling about this season since week 2. It makes you simply want to fast forward time and wait until we have a team that is truly worth a damn. Damnation, if I only had that power.

One day we'll have a quarterback that is accurate, durable, full of energy and throws a strong ball. He'll run when he needs to run, check down when he needs to check down and make the "Al Davis" pass when the game calls for it.

We had quarterbacks in the past that executed in that manner. There was Lamonica, Stabler, Punkett and finally Gannon who took us to the next level, as the Raider Nation was reborn once again in Oakland.

Since then we've been waiting. Waiting for the greatness of a QB leader to sit at his silver and black throne.

Is there a quarterback on this squad at the present time? I'd like to think so. For all the good things I hear of Terrelle Pryor, I also hear many bad things as well. Sure, I hear the fans as well as writers boast of how the opposition will turn around with his mere presence on the field, but as a realest, I can honestly say I believe we don't have much yet.   

If our man gets more reps in the future and possibly next game, maybe that's when we'll truly know if we have something. For now I'm still not sold.

This piece is the second in a few in which I attempt to predict what things will change and what will stay the same for Dennis Allen’s second year coaching the Silver & Black.  I hope that my predictions turn out to be more accurate than the Mayans’. 

In a previous piece I went through the coaching staff and predicted that defensive coordinator Jason Tarver would be back coaching the defense in 2013 and I still think that’s likely.  In this piece I will attempt to delve into some of what I think that means for next year’s Raiders defense.  This piece will not address all of the many players headed to free agency or that the Raiders may draft, etc – I will do that in a following piece – but more on how the defensive philosophy will change.

Prediction 1: Raiders convert to a 3-4

That is, the Raiders convert to a base 3-4 alignment.  They will still run 4-3 alignments but I’m guessing that the Raiders will convert to a 3-4 as their primary (or base) defensive alignment.  There are several reasons to believe this will occur.

First, both Allen and Tarver are defensive minded coaches and both have a great deal of history running the 3-4.  Tarver, specifically, ran one at Stanford which is where he coached defense before being hired by the Raiders.

More recently, the Raiders have started to experiment with 3-4 looks.  Here is a picture from the Raiders/Kansas City game in which the Raiders had 3 down lineman and 4 in the LB position. 

In this instance the outside LB positions are actually filled by DE Lamarr Houston and FS Tyvon Branch, both who blitzed on the play. The two ILBs are Miles Burris and Philip Wheeler.

The Raiders also had downs in where they played a 3-3-5 alignment versus both KC and Carolina.  A 3-3-5 is when the team has 3 down linemen, 3 linebackers and 5 defensive backs.  Usually when they went into this alignment, DE Houston would operate as a standup linebacker on the left side of the defensive line but would either rush or go into coverage – he dropped into coverage across the middle on a zone once, and had an assignment on Jamaal Charles on two downs.  On others, he rushed from a stand up position.

Even with Houston’s time as a standup linebacker it’s not likely the team is seriously looking at him as an OLB – he projects much better to a 5 technique DE – that puts him on the outside shoulder of the tackle.

But, it’s significant in that the team is looking at players in a 3 down lineman set to see if it’s something they want to do next year.  In terms of personnel, a transition will not get any easier than now.  The team has a huge number of free agents – almost half the roster – and will need to get a NT or two regardless of whether they play the 3-4 or the 4-3.  They can make the decision, now, as to which way they’d like to go and get a good start on their free agency wish list.

The Raiders were held without a touchdown for the second straight week but unlike last week’s victory against the Chiefs, field goals were not enough against the Panthers who put the Raiders away, 17-6.

The Panthers’ team was not significantly better but, despite being called for 10 penalties for 97 yards they were able to capitalize on their red zone trips and their two TDs and a FG where the Raiders 0-2 in their two trips to the redzone.

The Raiders have now gone 2 full games without scoring a TD.  But the ineptitude of the Raiders offense is much more than that.  The Raiders have scored a number of touchdowns in garbage time this year and, in general, have not been able to score when it’s needed, trailing most of the teams they are playing throughout the game.

In fact, a review of the Raiders previous games showed that the last time the Raiders scored a TD that either put them into the lead or maintained a lead for them was on November 4^th, when the Raiders played Tampa Bay – a game they eventually lost.  That was now 7 weeks ago.