The Raiders might be in rebuild mode, but in week 1 they looked like a team well ahead of the Miami Dolphins in the rebuild process.
In Kubiak’s first game as head coach, the Raiders’ offense and defense played as well as they did at any point last year, and no position group on the team performed better than the offensive line.
Last year, the Raiders’ offensive line was arguably the worst in franchise history, but according to Kubiak, the offensive line is now the strength of the team.
Prior to last week’s game, Kubiak spoke with the FOX production team and there was a lot he discussed that wasn’t shared on the television broadcast.
Fortunately for Raider fans, FOX television analyst Mark Schlereth revisited those conversations on the Stinking Truth Podcast this week…
“One of the things I asked Klint, I said, ‘Hey man, last year, the offensive line, I know you weren’t here last year, but the offensive line was abysmal. I mean, it was awful and what I’ve seen in the preseason, it looks like it might be a strength. How do you respond to that?” Schlereth said he asked the first-year head coach.
“And he goes, ‘It is our strength. It’s the strength of our football team, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.’ And so he’s like, ‘We’re going to be a dominant run team. We’re going to play in heavy personnel. We’re going to use a fullback.’ And you look back to his Seattle time, right? In Seattle this dude was in 12 personnel, they led the league 7.5 yards per play when he was with Seattle.”
Raiders made “greatest acquisition by any team” in the offseason
NFL Network’s Brian Baldinger talked about the Raiders this week and said the signing of Tyler Linderbaum was the “greatest acquisition by any team” since last season.
“He had four good years in Baltimore,” Baldinger said Linderbaum this week. “But that kid was born to be a Raider.”
“Jim Otto is in Raider heaven looking down going ‘We finally got a center. We got somebody that looks like they could be a center of a Super Bowl championship team. He picks up every running back off the ground. The quarterback gets hit out of bounds, he’s there to break up the fight. He’s like the bar bouncer. They ran the ball very, very well,” Baldinger continued.
“I usually do Raider breakdowns the last four years and all I would talk about was Maxx Crosby. I feel like I finally got another guy to talk about with the Raiders team.”
x: @raidersbeat
Kubiak. Just do your thing baby. Mark Schlereth is an expert Broncos P.O.S. and wishes nothing good for the Raiders. Here in Colorado, Bo Nix is the next coming of Jesus by all the radio host here in Denver. Just prove them wrong is all I ask.