It’s hard to guess what the Raiders will have in mind for the offseason, but you can be sure of one thing: Jon Gruden is going to go hard after another big name wide receiver, just as he did a year ago with Antonio Brown.
With the free agent pool mostly unspectacular, Gruden’s best path to a true no. 1 wide receiver will be through the draft (everyone knows it’s a deep class this year) or making another blockbuster trade. The wide receiver that might be on the trade block this spring is Odell Beckham Jr. and if that’s the case, the Raiders will have to consider the idea of bringing in another receiver that has a few red flags.
But unlike Antonio Brown, Beckham Jr. isn’t in legal trouble, seems to have mental stability, and shows up when it’s time to play. OBJ is playing through a disastrous year in Cleveland and has stayed away from bad headlines and doesn’t appear to have been an issue in the locker room – despite so much to be disappointed about in Cleveland. We know OBJ wants out of Cleveland, but he hasn’t acted like a fool this year and that certainly separates him far from AB in terms of character.
So should Gruden and Raiders general manager Mike Mayock consider making another power move and go get OBJ?
Who knows what they’ll do… but the head coach and GM are going to do something aggressive to put more playmakers around Derek Carr. That much you can count on.
Carr hasn’t been great over the past few weeks, but it’s a stretch to think Gruden wants to start over with a different quarterback. Look instead for him to point at the revolving receivers around Carr this year as the problem and rebuild the receiver room as the team heads to Las Vegas.
Remember, Gruden doesn’t like risky throws as a part of an offense so in a lot of ways Carr and Gruden have a similar mindset. Both seem to be begging for a player that can win one-on-one matchups. Maybe Beckham Jr. won’t be the receiver that he trades for, but Gruden is going to go fishing for an elite receiver somewhere.
Maybe don’t rule out A.J. Green by means of free agency, too…
twitter: @raidersbeat
Raiders should go for it
But do you want to put a known party boy in Vegas the party capital of the nation?
What bout Megatron he’s still available
Yes ODB is a piece of the puzzle we need along with a great defensive player.
I say do not go down that route…we don’t need another headache like AB…because if we do we will loose some draft picks…we need every draft pick to fill in a lot of holes in the defense…our defense sucks
I agree- it would be better to build through draft. ODB cant win 1-on-1 as well as he used to
No rather have Landry then odell
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Yes and a replacement for Carr too
Hell No…he’s a little drama queen …do you really want another Antonio brown saga…we can get somebody in the draft…plus we would have to give up a lot salary cap money….we need defence….spend the cap money there.