Oakland Raiders: Let’s pump the brakes on the Muscle Hamster revival

The Oakland Raiders are treading on familiar ground by bringing in an aging and/or ineffective running back – will this time be any different?

People already thought Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden was nuts when he came in and started talking about throwing the game back to 1888, or whatever it was. Then he started bringing players who seem like they were actually born around the turn of the twentieth century, and those already raised eyebrows got even higher.

And then, apparently, as the coup de grace – or maybe just a big middle finger to his detractors – Gruden brought in running back and Tampa Bay Buccaneers castoff Doug Martin, and the little slice of the world the Raider Nation inhabits went absolutely nuts.

Fans were less than thrilled by Gruden bringing in a guy who’s averaged less than three yards per carry over the last two seasons, has but two solid years of production, heading into his now seventh season, and hasn’t been a factor on offense – like, at all – in the last couple of seasons.

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Suffice it to say, the Raider Nation let Gruden have it, some calling for his head – using the Twitter hashtag #FireGruden to deliver the message – and most everybody else, believing his ten years in the broadcast booth drove him, literally, insane.

And it’s hard to fault anybody who has an issue with the Martin signing.

After all, this is a guy who, yes, has a couple of 1,400 yard plus seasons under his belt (2012, 2015). But, this is also the same guy who failed to crack 500 yards in any of his other four career seasons.

Martin is a guy coming off two straight seasons where he’s averaged under three yards per carry. Two seasons in which he rushed for 827 yards – combined.

Despite a body of work that would seem to bode ill for his chances of helping improve Oakland’s ground game, Gruden has been all in on Martin.

"“A lot of people may have fallen asleep on Doug Martin. He’s a two-time All Pro back, he had almost 1500 yards in two different seasons. He has not looked good here, he has looked great.”"

And of course, when Gruden gets excited, the media gets excited. After giving Martin that vote of confidence, articles started to appear – some, wondering if he’d be eating into Marshawn Lynch‘s carries, rather than be in a more complementary role, once the season started.

Others spoke at length about Martin’s “quick burst” and “fresh legs.” And many others are already ramping up the hype machine about Martin’s impending “revival.”

Not to be a wet blanket or anything, but let’s pump the brakes on that a bit, shall we?

After all, after rushing for just 421 yards in 2016, Martin is coming off a career-low 406 yards in 2017. He’s also 29-years old. The combination of age and ineffectiveness typically doesn’t herald the oncoming of a career revival

Especially when said career, outside of two seasons that were long, long ago, has been marked by ineffectiveness and a lack of production overall.

Let’s also not forget that the Raiders have been down this path with aging running backs whose production was less than optimal.

Quick – what do running backs Maurice Jones-Drew and Trent Richardson have in common? They both looked good in OTA’s, with people commenting on the quickness and burst they both possessed. Both seemed poised to revive careers that had flagged a bit – Richardson, more so than Jones-Drew.

However, for their “Raiders careers,” Jones-Drew played in twelve games, and amassed a whopping 96 rushing yards with a pathetic yards per carry average of 2.2 — which was still better than Richardson though, who didn’t make it out of camp and never set foot on the field in a regular season game for the Silver and Black.

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It’s a lot easier to show a quick burst and look good when you’re running against air, rather than against a defense flying around in pads. We saw it with Jones-Drew and Richardson. Are we seeing it play out yet again with Martin?

Though Gruden continues to talk Martin up glowingly – and the media dutifully follows suit – it seems that one of the bigger factors in the man known as the Muscle Hamster presumably being the primary backup to Lynch, is the fact that Oakland doesn’t have a lot of viable options in the backfield.

Because Gruden ignored the backfield in free agency and the Draft, outside of Lynch and Martin, the Raiders have Jalen Richard and DeAndre Washington – two players who are virtually identical in size and skill set.

One of them will likely not make the final 53-man roster, since having them both seems redundant, and neither one can be the team’s bellcow back.

They also have Chris Warren III, who is an intriguing prospect, given his size and similarity in style to Lynch. Yet, we’ve seen very little of him through the OTA sessions.

Now, it could be that Martin is no mirage. That the Raiders aren’t just panning for fool’s gold with him. It’s entirely possible that Martin could become that back who gained 1,400 plus yards in two of his six years on the field.

It’s possible.

And if that comes to pass, the Raiders will be a lot better for it. Gruden’s offensive system relies on a hard charging, effective ground game. Gruden wants his backs to chew up yards, move the chains, and take some of the pressure off Derek Carr and the passing game.

If the Muscle Hamster comes through and looks closer to the 2012/2015 version, than the every other year of his career version, those of us who remain skeptical and unwilling to buy into his “revival” just yet, will eat our plates of crow. Happily.

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It’s just hard to believe that, based on his body of work, a guy who has two outstanding years, and four years where he failed to crack even 500 yards on the ground, is somehow suddenly going to able to transform himself into a model of consistency and production.

It’s hard to believe that, based on his body of work, Martin is going to be able to contribute to this Raiders offense in any real meaningful way.

But hey, stranger things have happened. Right?