For the entire month of August, the Sportable Staff will look at one National Football League team a day. We?ll look at their offense, defense and in the end, assess their playoff chances. Previews will be done by division, starting with the NFC East. Each new division will also feature a new podcast devoted entirely to that division.

Raiders setting sail for a dismal 2007. What’s going on in Oakland right now? The Raiders first round pick, JaMarcus Russell, isn’t in camp. They also released their third round pick, defensive end Quentin Moses, and he was claimed by the Cardinals off waivers. Did I mention they hired Lane Kiffen who, at 32 years old, is the youngest head coach hired since the NFL-AFL merger and was previously the offensive coordinator at USC. You read that right; he wasn’t even a head coach in college.

Offense. The Raiders finally got Daunte Culpepper after speculation that he might have ended up there two years ago. People tend to forget that Daunte had one of the most prolific seasons for a quarterback ever in 2004. Since then, however, he’s been hurt and essentially useless. While Kiffin hasn’t announced the starter, it’ll most likely be Culpepper for now over Josh McCown and Andrew Walter. JaMarcus Russell, a Daunte clone in my opinion, doesn’t factor into this quarterback controversy because he’s not in camp yet. Hey JaMarcus, the job is yours. Sign the dotted line and get your ass in camp. Read the rest of this entry »

Hosts: Sonny, Ryan, and Rich.

In this episode, we discussed the AFC West. With Norv Turner now running the show in San Diego, can the Chargers get past last year’s chokejob and go all the way? Or will the rising Jay Cutler shift the balance of power in this division back towards the Rocky Mountains? We also sort out the bottom of this division. Can Larry Johnson survive another year of being overworked? Or will the Raiders’ improving defense keep them out of the cellar? All of this and more on our continuing coverage of the NFL.

You can find Episode 34 here. (Download mp3)

Sometimes I think players unions tend to take things a little too far. I think the NFL Players Association may have just done that. The Oakland Raiders have had to cancel their offseason workouts for next week because they were supposedly too hard and too physically demanding. I’m not sure the NFLPA realizes this, but we’re talking about football.

I think this might be a good sign for the Raiders though. The fact that they can’t practice is going to be a bit of a problem considering their lack of success last year, but maybe it means they have a coach who actually cares. We all know that Art Shell simply didn’t care last year, but if Lane Kiffin is driving his players so hard that the NFLPA needed to step in to cancel them, then you know he’s going to be a demanding coach. The fact of the matter still remains that the NFLPA should never had lobbied to get this practice canceled. It isn’t like the Raiders have Randy Moss anymore, so everyone on their team should want to try. Clearly someone complained about the workload otherwise this would never have come up.

So are the Raiders a bunch of whiners with a strong coach? Or is their coach just a complete nut job? In a sport that is centered around hitting other people, it seems hard to believe that a spring practice could be canceled because it was too violent. The Raiders have a long way to go this year, and missing this week certainly won’t help their cause.

A convicted murderer, rapist, and kidnapper, Robert Comer didn’t have much to say while he was being executed by lethal injection. His last words? “GO RAIDERS!”

Somewhere in this world, Al Davis has a shit eating grin on his face. A condemned man staring death in the eyes can say nothing more than two words about an awful football team. The Raiders, who picked LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell with the first overall draft pick in the 2007 NFL Draft, aren’t a good football team. Say what you will about their defense, which was largely underrated last year. Their offense, however, is pure crap.

There’s a die-hard fan, and then theres this. It’s hilarious that Comer, who judging from his criminal record is obviously deranged, could come up with nothing more than that statement. Screw God, screw family, screw love, it’s apparently all about the Raiduh Nation. Comer is proof that Raider fans are fans until they die.

Take that Red Sox Nation. I don’t care how big of a fan you are, the chowder heads of Sox Nation would never pimp the Sox with their last words. Then again, many Raider fans don’t run with the normal crowd. Robert Comer is just proof that, once you’re in the Raiduh Nation, you’re in for life. Need further proof? Al Davis is a walking corpse and he’s still finding ways to run, and screw up, that organization.

It has been reported that Oakland has signed former Indianapolis Colts running back Dominic Rhodes. The only word that sums up my thoughts on this is mistake. The Raiders really didn’t need to sign Rhodes, basically they just got themselves another 3rd down back, which they already have in LaMont Jordan.

Rhodes put together a great Super Bowl, but that Super Bowl experience really won’t help a team that isn’t going to win more than 5 games. While Rhodes had a memorable Super Bowl, the rest of his season was far from that. He was a backup for a rookie, and managed only 641 yards. Every year since he entered the league Rhodes has seen his statistics drop, even if he isn’t getting as many carries as he did then his yards per carry are still going down.

I’m assuming this is a money saving issue for the Raiders. If they cut Jordan and save money by signing Rhodes then I can understand this. But even then, you have to question, is Rhodes better than Jordan? Jordan is coming off an injury and an abysmal year (but who wouldn’t behind that o-line) while Rhodes is riding in high.

The Raiders have a ton of issues to address, including running backs, but signing a career backup isn’t going to help them. That experiment already failed with LaMont Jordan. They have the first pick in the draft, they should just trade it and stockpile picks. They’re going to suck this year, they’re going to suck next year, and they may suck the year after that, but if they start stocking up draft picks and not making moves like this, they may have a good team in the future.

The Oakland Raiders cut ties with underachieving quarterback Aaron Brooks just a year after the Brooks experiment started. When the Raiders signed him in 2006, they hoped Brooks would be able to establish the deep threat with wide receivers Randy Moss and Jerry Porter. It didn’t happen.

Will Brooks catch on somewhere else? Probably. NFL Exec’s will remember the glory days of when Brooks and Jim Haslett led the Saints on improbable runs. Then again, NFL Executives will also remember Brooks making incredibly poor decisions and looking as lost as a 5 year old at Woodstock. Brooks is bad. He’s never fully lived up to his “mobile quarterback” repertoire because, lets face it, he’s a terrible quarterback. The ability to run is good and dandy, but so is the ability to throw accurately. Brooks can’t do the latter.

This move by the Raiders is a great indication that they’ll be looking to draft a quarterback in April. JaMarcus Russell is a very good option for the Raiders, as is Brady Quinn. The idea that they might trade the pick to stock pile later round draft picks is foolish because the Raiders won’t win shit with Andrew Walter at the helm. Walter did throw 3 touchdowns last year….but he also threw 13 interceptions. Yikes. Time for a change at the quarterback position again for the Raiders. Who’s next on the Oakland carousel?