With a 2-8 record and the Raiders all but eliminated from the playoffs already, it’s not too soon to look ahead to the offseason and what the decision makers in Las Vegas are going to do to overhaul the roster.
Everyone knows the Raiders need a quarterback, but Yahoo and FOX Sports host Jason Fitz said the most intimidating issue with the roster right now is the massive volume of talent needed at every corner of the roster.
“The hardest part about what we’ve seen this year isn’t even the losses,” Fitz said on the Graph and Wasted Show. “The hardest part is that a lot of the talent has regressed. I had a former GM in the NFL a couple of years ago tell me that a home run Hall of Fame level offseason for a GM would be replacing five players with high level starters. That’s considered Hall of Fame. So now ask this really difficult question.”
“How many players on this Raiders roster would start for any of the playoff caliber football teams of our starting 22? I think we can all agree Maxx [Crosby] and Brock [Bowers], we want to see if Ashton [Jeanty] can grow into it. So maybe I’ll give you three,” Fitz continued.
“I’ll give you a third one. I think [Adam] Butler has had some nice moments. So maybe we can make the argument that Butler might be rotational. I say that to say that if we want to be generous, this team needs 18 new starters. 18 to be competitive with the Kansas City Chiefs, the Denver Broncos and the LA Chargers, they need 18 new starters. I’m not even talking about depth.”
Fitz added that the area of the roster he wants to see the Raiders address first is the offensive line.
“Number one priority, the number one thing I’m fixing. I need four new offensive linemen,” Fitz said. “If we believe that this coaching staff will ever give [Jackson Powers-Johnson] a shot, I still think Kolton [Miller] has got enough in the tank, if he can stay healthy. But I need at least three high quality offensive linemen to actually hit the open market that are worth a d—. That’s asking for a home run, y’all.”
Raider Nation Radio host ‘JT the Brick’ on the upcoming roster overhaul
For what it’s worth, even the Raiders’ flagship radio station is talking about a massive roster rebuild needed in the offseason.
“I was listening to Jason Fitz as I drove in. He was on the morning show, and he was talking about the fact that maybe this team is going to need anywhere from 15 to 17 new starters next year. And I said to myself, wow, that’s a big number,” JT the Brick said on his weekday radio show this week.
“I took out my piece of paper, if you’re watching on the stream. He’s right,” JT continued.
“This team might need 16 to 18 new, brand-new players not on the roster who can start for us next year as we put our deposits down for season tickets. That’s how many players that are here that are going to be gone, and new players need to come in. And fortunately, John Spytek is going to have 10-plus draft picks. He’s going to have some money and free agency to go out and get a player or two, and we’ll go from there.”
But before the Raiders can do anything with the roster, they need to figure out who is going to lead the organization into the next 5-10 years from a coaching standpoint.
If Pete Carroll isn’t going to be that coach, Spytek, Mark Davis and Tom Brady need to make that determination now rather than later.
That’s a point Fitz made several weeks ago on his Yahoo Sports podcast.
Fitz is one of the most respected commenters in the Raider media circles, so it’s no small statement when he shares an opinion like the one he did this week.
“Pete Carroll needs to step down as the coach of the Raiders,” Fitz said last month. “Maybe not today. Maybe not until the end of the season, but it is now abundantly clear that he is not going to be the answer for what long-term ails the franchise.”
“You know me… I think it’s fair to say I’m not over reactionary or a shock jock and I think you also know that as we came into this season, my expectations were that the Raiders would be a seven-win team. I didn’t come in calling for the playoffs. So when I say this, I’m not saying this because wild expectations weren’t being met. I’m saying this because the timeline no longer meets the coach’s timeline.”
“It’s really simple,” Fitz continued. “When you have a coach that openly admitted at the podium this week that they are further behind than he expected they would be, my question becomes what does the real rebuild look like?”
“It’s obviously not Geno [Smith] with Chip Kelly. It’s obviously not working this season, so now you’ve got to look at it and say ‘Okay, are we going to draft a quarterback? Are we going to bring in a new offensive staff? Are we going to start this glorious rebuild process?’ And if you do that, how do you do that with a coach that’s already the oldest coach in NFL history to stand on the sideline during a game?”
“There’s no way, in my mind If you are starting a rebuild, which I believe takes 2 or 3 seasons, Pete Carroll won’t be around to see the end of it. So, the sooner you figure out who’s actually going to run [the Raiders] the next 10 years through this rebuild process, the better for the organization.”
x: @raidersbeat
Raiders have to trade Maxx while they can still grab a haul for him because this time next year, he won’t get the same return.
I agree with the assessment that we need 4 new starters in the O line. That includes finding a starting caliber Center if JPJ can’t do it.
Trade Maxx while you can, and focus on the draft, sign who you can in free agency but we definitely need to focus on O line.
FIRE BRENNAN CARROLL!
Maybe the Raiders trade their roster for Ohio State’s.