Oakland Raiders- Why They Shouldn’t Play the Wait and See Game

The Oakland Raiders can’t afford to take the “let’s wait and see” approach when it comes to signing available free agents. There is a reason the NFL Network dedicates the first few days of the signing period to their “Free Agency Frenzy” show. NFL general managers across the league act like sharks in a feeding frenzy on those first few days of free agency.

Free agency has become a significant period in the NFL, when teams at the bottom of the standings look for those franchise changing players, who can change the direction of a team single-handedly. On the other hand, teams who feel they may be a piece or two away from a championship look for that missing ingredient to put them over the top.

Being asleep at the wheel can be a one-way ticket to the unemployment line for any NFL front office executive during this period of the NFL calendar year.

A thorough game plan must be formulated before free agency hits. There must be multiple game plans to coincide with the different variables, which will unquestionably happen.

“At that moment you better have a pretty good feel of who’s going to be available to you and who’s not,” former Tennessee Titans’ general manager Floyd Reese said. “If you don’t, you’re going to be trailing the pack and you won’t even get on the docket,” per this espn.com article by Jeff Legwold.

“At that moment you better have a pretty good feel of who’s going to be available to you and who’s not,” former Tennessee Titans general manager Floyd Reese said.

The Raiders’ general manager Reggie McKenzie has been accused of not being active enough when that free agency clocks begins. The criticism has come from NFL insiders, and passionate Raider fans across the country.

The bulk of McKenzie’s critics claim he doesn’t have a sense of urgency. They proclaim that, while he is sitting back and biding time, the vast majority of top-tier free agents are being sealed to deals by his competitors.

Prior to the draft McKenzie was quoted saying,”Now we’re looking for some guys who can come in and be impact players, I got a big checklist.”

This year’s free agency class had numerous so-called impact players (depending on who your source is), but there were a few that stood out above the rest. There was the intimidating, powerful defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh, the consensus number 1 free agent on the market, who many experts and fans alike, felt would be a perfect fit in Oakland.

The last time the NFL’s leading rusher started the next season on a different team was in  1947, when 1946 league MVP Bill Dudley was traded away from the Pittsburgh Steelers to the Detroit Lions. DeMarco Murray free agent status made that scenario plausible again. Murray was coming off a dominant season, where he ran for a league leading 1,845 yards and 13 touchdowns with the Dallas Cowboys.

Oakland was seen as possible destinations for both stars by many league sources, and both would add talent and much-needed depth to a Raiders’ roster lacking in both. So when it was broadly reported on numerous sport channels and publications that the Raiders had set up the very first meeting with Suh, the applause from Raider Nation could be heard across the NFL landscape.

“Could this be the year McKenzie reels in the Big Fish?,” many members of the Raiders’ rabid fanbase were thinking.

That feeling of utopia was quickly sacked (pun shamelessly intended), when Suh signed a record deal worth $114 million over 6 years, including $60 million in guaranteed money with the Miami Dolphins.

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With the possibility of seeing Suh wearing the silver and black on game days no longer a possibility, many across the league felt the Raiders would go all out to bring Murray on board. So the waiting game began. The prevailing thought across the league was that Murray would re-sign with the Cowboys, because no way would Jerry Jones let such a vital cog in his team’s resurgence leave after years of perceived underachieving.

But when it became clear that Murray could be changing uniforms, the Raiders were seen as true contenders to land the services of the AP Offensive Player of the Year award.

So the “let’s wait and see” game continued. The three teams being mentioned as front-runners in the Murray sweepstakes were the Jacksonville Jaguars, Cowboys and the Raiders. There were different numbers being thrown out daily, but still no signing. This act played out over the first couple of days of free agency, with each team landing the lead role at various times, but nothing ever materialized.

The mini soap opera ended when the Eagles, who had recently traded away their star running back LeSean McCoy to the Buffalo Bills swooped in and seized the All-Pro off the free agent market, leaving McKenzie and the Raiders without the  “Splash Signing” they were hoping to make. The debate on whether signing Murray would have been beneficial to the Raiders has been kicked about by many pundits, and the amount of time wasted on a decision to be made by Murray can be viewed as detrimental.

One thing is very clear. McKenzie must get the ball rolling and continue to bring in talent. Players that will get the silver and black in position where the off-season can be used to get the final few pieces to a championship team, rather than needing an influx of talent to fill various gaps on a talent deficient roster.

Next: Oakland Raiders:Grading Out the Free Agent Class So Far