Oakland Raiders: Team Should Kick The Tires On A Couple Of Veterans

The Oakland Raiders have done a great job of upgrading in most of their areas of need this offseason – but even with the improvements, there are still a couple of areas yet to be addressed.

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Oakland Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie has been a busy man this offseason. And his hard work has been paying off as his upgrades during free agency – as well as losses by division rivals – have made this team look like they could be a legitimate contender in AFC West. That being said, there are still a couple of holes that need to be filled.

Oakland’s offense is in pretty good shape. Having brough back Donald Penn and signing prized free agent Kelechi Osemele, the Raiders are going to put an offensive line on the field that is going to maul people. With an arsenal of weapons that includes Amari Cooper, Michael Crabtree, Seth Roberts, Andre Holmes, Clive Walford, and Mychal Rivera, among others, the offense looks to be in pretty good shape.

The one area to be concerned about is the running game. Having cracked 1,000 yards and showed that he wasn’t simply a flash in the pan in 2014, Latavius Murray showed that he has the ability to be the team’s bell cow. But he needs some help. Taiwan Jones and Roy Helu Jr. don’t seem capable of being that second back for the Raiders, so they’ll need to look elsewhere for help. Fortunately for them, they can address the lack of a second back by picking through the dregs of free agency, or in the later rounds of the draft – remember Murray was himself, a sixth round pick.

The offense is going to be just fine. But on the defensive side of the ball, the Raiders still have a couple of holes that need to be filled. Specifically, those holes exist at safety and inside linebacker.

With the Raiders kinda, sorta making a run at Eric Weddle that didn’t pan out, it’s unclear if the team pursued other free agent options like Rashad Johnson very hard. One name that’s still out there though, and somebody who might be a good season or two stopgap is Reggie Nelson.

Yeah, yeah, yeah., Reggie Nelson is old. Let’s just get that out of the way right now. 32 years old in football years is like 112 in normal person years, right? Maybe so. But Raiders legend Charles Woodson played – and played really, really well – until he was 38 years old. There are a number of safeties around the league who are in or are really close to that 30 years old mark who are still playing extremely well.

So perhaps at the position, age isn’t necessarily as relevant or impactful as it might be at other positions.

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Nelson showed last season that he certainly has a lot left in the tank. Playing for the Cincinatti Bengals, Nelson racked up 72 tackles, 14 passes defensed, two fumble recoveries, and a league leading eight interceptions. For a guy who many consider “old,” he certainly isn’t playing like it.

The Raiders need a safety to pair with Nate Allen. The team does have some in-house options like Travis Carrie – who had some bit of success at the position last season as a fill-in – or perhaps Keith McGill, who played some safety in college. They could even try to salvage the train wreck of former first round pick D.J. Hayden‘s career by moving him to safety this offseason.

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But to have the experience, savvy, and production that Reggie Nelson could bring to the table – if they can get him on a team friendly deal – might be the more logical and ultimately smarter way to go. He would solidify an Oakland defensive backfield that has Allen, David Amerson and the newly acquired Sean Smith on the corners. And it would make Oakland’s secondary a very feared unit.

The key though, is getting him on a team friendly deal. Though the Raiders have a little more than $20 million left in the bank, McKenzie isn’t keen to spend every last dime of it. Especially not with some large second contracts for cornerstone pieces like Derek Carr, Gabe Jackson, Justin Ellis, and Khalil Mack just around the corner.

But with the market for Nelson’s services as surprisingly lukewarm as it has been, it’s not outside the realm of possibility.

The Raiders are also going to need a thumper at inside linebacker. And somebody who can play the run as well as the pass equally as effectively. While Ben Heeney and Neiron Ball showed some real potential and upside last season – though they both had deficiencies exposed now and then, showing that they still need some seasoning and may only wind up being rotational kind of guys. They’re great pieces to have in the rotation, to be sure. But the Raiders need somebody who can play the majority of the snaps and really get after it.

Enter Karlos Dansby.

Of course, people will see his age – 34 years old – and immediately balk, if not scream “NOOO!” outright. But like Nelson, Dansby seems to be defying Father Time and continues to play at a very high level. He could provide that physical presence inside that the Raiders desperately need – and he’s showed that he can play the run as well as the pass very, very well. Which is something Raiders linebackers had some trouble with in 2015.

For the Browns last season, Dansby notched 107 tackles, three forced fumbles, six passes defensed, three interceptions – and two defensive touchdowns. The guy’s motor never stops and he has a real nose for the ball – something the Raiders can use in an inside linebacker.

Of course, the counter argument is that the same was said about Curtis Lofton and well see how well that worked out. And there really is no counter to that counter argument. As a member of the Saints – a year before the Raiders signed him – Lofton had 145 tackles. He was a machine in the middle of New Orleans’ defense.

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But when he put on the Silver and Black jersey, something happened and Lofton was an absolute train wreck. He was so bad on defense – especially in pass coverage – that he lost his spot with the first team, finishing the season with just nine starts.

With free agents, sometimes it’s a crapshoot. But with not a lot of other viable options, it might not jurt to kick the tires on Dansby. If they can get him to agree to a team friendly deal for a season or two, he might be a pretty decent stopgap – and a mentor to the younger guys.

None of this precludes the Raiders using their draft picks to continue upgrading the defense. Alabama linebacker Reggie Ragland has been mentioned as a possibility with the fourteenth overall pick. Vonn Bell of Ohio State or Jeremy Cash from Duke have been mentioned as possibilities at safety.

Whomever they target, it seems more than likely, that the Raiders will spend at least their first couple of draft picks shoring up pieces of their defense.

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Even if they do though, using rookies to shore up the middle of the defense is a risky proposition at best. Like signing free agents, drafting prospecs and plugging them into key spots right away is a crapshoot. At best. This isn’t to say that a Ragland or a Bell couldn’t have an immediate impact. But drafting them while having a reliable, veteran option like a Dansby and a Nelson to help groom them and prepare them for life on the professional level seems a prudent course of action.

With the Raiders on the cusp of being able to really make some noise, they need to be smart in how they approach things. They need to shore up and strengthen the middle of that defense and adding proven veterans like Dansby and Nelson – while grooming the next generation to step up and into their places – sounds like it just might be the winning formula.