Raiders fire sale continues roster remake for Las Vegas
Now that the fire sale has torched its latest target and the Raiders have pushed yet another of their former first-round picks overboard like the U.S. military once did $10 million helicopters, it might be time to evaluate what things could look like in 2020.
Here is a projected roster for the inaugural Las Vegas Raiders …
Quarterback: Derek Carr.
Center: Rodney Hudson.
Remaining 51 players: TBD.
Reggie McKenzie told reporters in Alameda, California, on Monday that no one in the organization is tanking, but they’re certainly not trying to win now, so I suppose it’s all semantics on how the team’s general manager (in title only) wants to describe a roster shakeup that’s registering 7.0 on the Richter scale.
I would guess some Raiders faithful believe what the team is doing borders on sinful, which brings us to the city in which it will relocate.
Amari Cooper won’t be part of things in Las Vegas, because head coach/general manager (in reality)/Grand Poobah Jon Gruden has literally opened his own Savers by stocking shelves with an NFL roster.
Cooper was dealt to the Cowboys for a first-round pick, which is only a surprise in the manner Dallas owner Jerry Jones actually paid such a ransom for the inconsistent wideout.
Jones is as desperate as Gruden, only in a dissimilar way.
One is building for the future while Jones is delusional enough to believe his team can win now.
“This is where we get a great opportunity. … We get to really build on what we have,” McKenzie said. “We’re going to build this thing. We’ve got the ammunition to build this thing.”
I suppose that means while they have resigned themselves to going to battle each Sunday with a water pistol this season and next, it’s their intention to arrive in Las Vegas with a bazooka’s worth of upside.
The Raiders now own three first-round picks (and counting) in the 2019 draft, and Gruden is obviously hoping that once festivities in Nashville conclude next April, some aspiring country star at one of the local honky-tonks will have already penned a chorus about how the team robbed the league blind with such selections.
Until then, maybe whiskey really will drown the memory of what the Raiders are doing now.
Las Vegas Bosa?
Seven weeks into the season, they’re competing with Arizona and a few others as the league’s most pathetic side or, more specifically, which eventually proves lousy enough to land Ohio State defensive end Nick Bosa with the first overall pick.
The Raiders, who after trading Cooper on Monday put running back Marshawn Lynch on injured reserve and all but guaranteed you could become incredibly rich by betting the under on all remaining games this season, will assuredly have a top-four selection.
They also own the No. 1 choices of Chicago and now Dallas, meaning Gruden selecting three times before No. 15 is announced appears more than possible.
So perhaps to infuse some future brightness in what has quickly become a dark and gloomy and depressing present, Raiders fans can read up on Bosa and names like Joe Jackson from Miami and Greedy Williams from Louisiana State and Dexter Lawrence from Clemson and A.J. Brown from Mississippi and other college players destined for the first round.
It’s where a critical part of that initial Las Vegas roster will be shaped.
“Gruden and I, we work together very well,” said McKenzie, which is probably true if he’s OK with the other guy making all the decisions. “I want to win bad. … I’m not going to say anyone is untouchable.”
It means safety Karl Joseph, another former first-round pick of the Raiders, likely has his bags packed ahead of the Oct. 30 trade deadline.
It means the fire sale isn’t near yet extinguished.
This might not be tanking in its truest form, but it’s also not trying to win for a good while yet.
“It’s the name of the business,” running back Jalen Richard told reporters Monday. “We still got to come in here and perform on Sunday with whoever we’ve got.”
At this rate of attrition, perhaps someone should place a call to Bay Area power De La Salle High.
Keeping talent is never an issue with the Spartans.
Contact columnist Ed Graney at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.
