Oakland Raiders: Top 5 takeaways from Week 4 victory over the Indianapolis Colts

3. Vontaze Burfict is hurting the team

It’s hard to really, completely be on board as a “fan” of Vontaze Burfict. I understand the argument that he brings physicality. He hits hard. But after a while, the clown show becomes a little embarrassing.

The Oakland Raiders decided to take a chance on a player with some questionable history when they signed Burfict to a contract this past offseason.

With a young team, the thinking was that a veteran player could help mold some of the less experienced players. Burfict was named one of the captains of the team. The Raiders have put a lot of trust in his role.

This week, Burfict got some media attention, not for his undeniable leadership or excellent play, but for — you guessed it — a dirty hit on a defenseless player.

With about 12 minutes left in the half, Jacoby Brissett threw over the middle to tight end Jack Doyle. He made the catch and was down on his knees for a couple of seconds before Burfict barreled and connected helmet-to-helmet.

I’ve seen some defenses of whether it was a dirty hit or not, but it’s frankly not up for debate. It was a dirty hit. Burfict is a dirty player. The Raiders knew that. The league knows that.

Burfict was understandably ejected from the game and will likely be facing a league suspension because of his late hit on a defenseless player.

But the takeaway here isn’t that Burfict is a dirty player; we already knew that much about him already, and the Oakland Raiders had to halfway expect something like this was going to happen.

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The takeaway is that the discipline shouldn’t be limited to the league. The Raiders should take steps in disciplining Burfict.

Could that mean possibly cutting ties with him altogether? Probably not. The Raiders are shorthanded when it comes to linebackers as it is, so that wouldn’t help the situation.

But it’s that reason that makes this all the more misguided by Burfict. The hit received an ejection and a fifteen-yard penalty that helped the Colts score on that same drive.

If this was any regular player, it’d be one thing. But the fact that he has prior history almost assures that he’s going to get hit with some suspension and or fine.

As one of the captains on the team, the Oakland Raiders shouldn’t stand for that. This isn’t a team with lofty expectations on the year. They need leaders on the team that have a sense of the bigger picture.

Burfict seems completely aloof to that.

While he serves his suspension and plots his next idiotic at best, flat-out dirty at worst hit on some defenseless player in the future, the Raiders should consider stripping that captaincy and giving it to someone who’s less of a liability.

*Editor’s note: Burfict has reportedly been suspended for the remainder of the 2019 season but will be appealing his sentence*