Rod Woodson Says Raiders Lost “Toughness” When They Replaced Michael Crabtree

Rod Woodson is one of the legendary players to wear a Raiders uniform. He has also been a part of two assistant coaching stints with the Raiders – one with Hue Jackson and most recently with Jack Del Rio.

Woodson was a part of the Raiders epic collapse this season and believes the Raiders made a mistake by parting ways with Michael Crabtree.

“I don’t want to sound like a scorned lover because I was fired by the Raiders,” Woodson said Wednesday on FS1’s Undisputed with Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe. “I love Mark Davis. I love the Davis family. But you can’t tell me you got rid of Michael Crabtree and you put Jordy Nelson in there and Jordy Nelson is better than Michael Crabtree. That’s a lie.”

“[Jon Gruden] is making a lot of moves. I get it. But these two moves, Crabtree was the glue to that offense. He gave them a backbone. He gave them toughness. Jordy Nelson is not going to give them that. Derek Carr is not going to give them that. Now Marshawn Lynch, he could give them that if he’s there, if he’s playing. I don’t know with that.”

A lot has been made of the different splits among the Raiders locker room last year. One of the divides clearly involved Crabtree as the former coaching staff was reportedly getting tired of Crabtree’s act in the locker room. Woodson, it appears, was not one of the coaches who was losing patience with Crabtree.

Given the injuries Carr played through the past two seasons and the way Nelson has dominated defensive backs over the years, it would be interesting to know what kind of toughness Crabtree brought that Carr and Nelson cannot – unless he’s talking about the on-field fracas variety of toughness that caused Crabtree to be suspended for essentially two full games.

If that’s the kind of toughness the Raiders are losing without Crabtree, all will be just fine.

twitter: @raidersbeat

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8 thoughts on “Rod Woodson Says Raiders Lost “Toughness” When They Replaced Michael Crabtree

  1. Dude is just salty he got canned.
    We dont need Crabtree’s toughness. We have plenty of toughness from BEASTMODE, Kelechi Osemele, PENN!, Hudson, and who the FCK said Derek Carr wasnt tough?! Theres a difference between being tough and being a punk with a bad attitude.

    1. Your absolutely right he is salty! Nelson won’t be dropping passes! And Car not tuff !? I’m let’s see dislocated finger on throwing hand comes back into game and lights it up! Then Breakes bones in back and plays rest of season! If that’s not tough then what do you want !? I loved Crab he was a big part of us doing good and won some games for us. So won’t dog him. But we needed to make a change. We will be just fine

  2. Jordy Nelson will be exposed as average at best without Rogers throwing to him. After Rogers went down last year, he didn’t do anything and wound up with only about 480 receiving yards for the year. There’s a reason the Packers dumped him! Meanwhile, Crabtree, for all his personality issues, was the core of the offense and one tough competitor.

    As Woodson says, there’s no comparison between the two.

    1. Um lets see Rogers, Hundley, Rogers, Hundley . Yep its Rogers. When your second string can’t get passes to your lead wr of course there will be issues. It wasn’t all Nelson.

  3. TBH, I think KO and the Raiders OL are responsible for being the tone setters on offense, which they didn’t do last year bc they were too busy being terrible at zone blocking. If Gruden brings back the power run game like it appears he’s going to, then the offense isn’t going to lack toughness. BTW, Crabtree took himself out of games for no reason. How is that positive leadership?

    1. If Woodson is right, and he was there as a coach, then it probably was because he was hurt.

  4. Comparing these 2 wr’s based on physical ability, I can see where people would say J. Nelson is a drop-off from Crabtree but as far as professionalism and leadership are concerned, there is no comparison, Nelson is a definite upgrade.
    Gruden’s presence alone will bring some toughness to the team. His leadership and expectations will also bring accountability from not only the players but from the coaching staff as well.
    The one area on the team that seemed to
    lack toughness was the secondary. So maybe now that Woodson is no longer leading the Raiders secondary, that group will now be well coached and develop some toughness.

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