Oakland Raiders: Ranking team’s offensive positional needs this offseason

The Oakland Raiders have plenty of work to do this offseason as they rebuild the roster, so let’s take a look at the team’s positions of need on offense.

Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden has now completed the first half of the mission he embarked upon when he took Mark Davis’ $100 million dollars – he’s burned the entire organization to the ground.

Make no mistake about it, when Gruden came in sporting his fancy new 10-year contract, he knew he’d have to go full scorched earth on the roster despite his assurances to the contrary.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing though. The roster he inherited was replete with glaring holes and a startling lack of depth. It was not the “playoff caliber” roster Gruden’s detractors like to claim it was. Really, let’s get over 2016 already– it was an overachieving squad that had a lot of luck break their way.

More from Las Vegas Raiders News

• Raiders: Rookie stock report following Week 3 performance
• Raiders: Bryan Edwards out, Henry Ruggs doubtful for Sunday
• Raiders: Damon Arnette re-injures thumb, could be headed to IR
• Raiders fall short in letdown Week 3 loss to the New England Patriots
• Raiders: Game breakdown and prediction for Week 3 at New England Patriots

The run to the 2016 playoffs was all smoke and mirrors. A fluke and the outlier to what has been a franchise in a seemingly perpetual malaise. And if you think that’s an incorrect assessment, what would you call a 12-win season for a team that’s averaged about four wins in every other season since Derek Carr was drafted in 2014?

Yeah, that word you’re searching for is outlier.

However, now that Gruden has completed the tear down portion of the program, now comes the heavy lifting – the build it all back up and build it better this time part.

And to that end, he’s brought in Mike Mayock to evaluate the talent coming out of college – something he excels at. Mayock’s reputation as a guy who can spot talent is pretty solid and will benefit the Raiders when it comes to using their draft capital.

In addition to those three first-round picks, Gruden is going to have a pretty sizeable pile of cash to work with as he attempts to land some veteran free agents to flesh out this roster.

Though many don’t believe the Raiders are going to be competitive again for quite some time, we see teams can go from worst to first year after year. We see teams that haven’t been in the postseason tournament for a while make an inspired run to the playoffs. Like tornado season, it happens every single year.

But to do that, the Raiders are going to have to rebuild the roster by adding both rookie playmakers and key veteran free agents. If they want to be competitive again, the Raiders need contributions from those remaining on their current roster as well as the new faces coming in.

With that in mind, we’re looking at key areas of need on the offensive side of the ball. We’ve ranked them from least to most pressing and we’ve offered up a few potential solutions along the way…