-  Jason Campbell will enter his first season with the Raiders, he will look more like a quarterback than anything the Raiders have seen in 5 years
-  The Raiders finished last season ranking 29th in the league with 2,557 passing yards
-  Oakland will look for improvement from second year receivers Darrius Heyward-Bey and Louis Murphy
-  Chaz Schilens, Johnnie Lee-Higgins, and rookie speedster Jacoby Ford will provide depth in the receiving corps
-  Zach Miller will look to stay steady with a new incumbent at QB
-  The RBs for the Raiders are effective receivers out of the backfield, especially McFadden this should increase with a better passing game next season

-  Oakland had a deep running back corps that allows them to spread the carries around to three different backs but that will be down to just two this years
-  The Raiders finished last season ranking 21st in the league with 1,701 rushing yards
-  Darren McFadden will look to increase his workload as well as his output now that defenses cant just stack the box against the running game
-  Michael Bush will contend with McFadden for the starting position, and he has a good chance of winning it, he averaged 4.8 yards per carry to McFadden’s 3.4

-  Jason Campbell will do his best to remind Raiders fans what a quarterback actually is, not a lineman with a cannon
-  In 2009 Campbell completed 327 of his 507 attempts for 3,618 yards. He threw 20 touchdowns to 15 interceptions. Can he finally put it all together and become a consistent winner? (has a career 20-32 record)
-  Bruce Gradkowski last season came in when Russell struggled; while he was playing he completed 82 passes of 150 attempts for 1,007 yards. Gradkowski threw 6 TDs to 3 interceptions

-  Darren McFadden has yet to lead up to his draft number. In 2009 McFadden he rushed for 357 yards on 104 attempts and scored only 1 TD. In the passing game he caught 21 passes for 245 yards
-  Last season Michael Bush rushed 123 times for 589 yards and 3 TDs. He also caught 17 passes for 105 yards
-  Who provides depth at the RB position??

-  Who will actually step up and have a break out season for the Raiders
-  Louis Murphy caught 34 passes for 521 yards and 4 TDs
-  Chaz Schilens gained 365 yards on 29 catches and scored twice
-  Higgins had 19 catches for 263 yards
-  Heyward-Bey grabbed 9 balls for 124 yards and a score

-  Last season Zach Miller caught 66 passes for 805 yards and 3 touchdowns
-  Tony Stewart and Brandon Myers are the depth for the TE position

-  Sebastian Janikowski made 26 of 29 field goals for an 89.7 percentage. He also made all 17 of his extra points

-  Kirk Morrison led the team with 133 tackles, Tyvon Branch had 124
-  The Raiders had 37 sacks last season
-  Leading sackers were Greg Ellis and Trevor Scott with 7.0 sacks each
-  How can the Raiders keep improving on defense and create turnovers??
-  Chris Johnson and Michael Huff led the team with 3 INTs each
-  Team forced 13 fumbles
-  Team forced a total of 21 turnovers
-  Can Rolando McClain be the playmaker the Raiders think he is

Analysis:  Khalif Barnes who gave up 7.5 sacks in 16 games and has under-achieved is still an upgrade over Kwame Harris who gave up the same amount of sacks in 11 games.   Samson Steele at center is a downgrade from Jake Grove.  Grove gave up 2 sacks playing for the Raiders vs. Satele who gave up 4.5 sacks with the Dolphins. 

Analysis:  Tom Cable and Ted Tollner are taking the reins of this Oakland team.  Cable has never been an NFL head coach before.  He worked as OC for the USC Trojans during their high octane years.  They likely will be looking to stretch the field.

July 16, 2010

Signed LB Travis Goethel and DB Jeremy Ware.

July 13, 2010

Signed CB Walter McFadden.

July 9, 2010

Agreed to terms with OL Jared Veldheer and OL Bruce Campbell. Released LB Isaiah Ekejiuba.

June 19, 2010

Signed DL Richard Seymour.

May 6, 2010

Released QB JaMarcus Russell. Signed RB Michael Bennett.

May 1, 2010

Waived FB Oren O'Neal.

April 16, 2010

Signed LB Thomas Howard.

April 15, 2010

Signed QB Kyle Boller.

April 14, 2010

Signed LB Kirk Morrison a restricted free agent tender.

April 13, 2010

Signed K Swayze Waters.

April 6, 2010

Signed DL Chris Cooper.

April 3, 2010

Re-signed OT Langston Walker.

March 30, 2010

Signed S Hiram Eugene.

March 23, 2010

Signed DT William Joseph, LB Ricky Brown and FB Luke Lawton.

March 15, 2010

Signed QB Bruce Gradkowski and LS Jon Condo.

March 14, 2010

Acquired LB Kamerion Wimbley from Cleveland for an undisclosed draft pick.

March 11, 2010

Released DT Gerard Warren.

March 8, 2010

Released WR Javon Walker and DE Greg Ellis.

March 6, 2010

Released RB Justin Fargas.

March 5, 2010

Re-signed OL Khalif Barnes to a one-year contract.

March 4, 2010

Tendered contracts to QB Bruce Gradkowski, CB Stanford Routt, LB Thomas Howard, LB Ricky Brown, C Jon Condo, LB Kirk Morrison and OL Chris Morris.

February 25, 2010

Designated DL Richard Seymour as the franchise player.

February 16, 2010

Agreed to terms with K Sebastian Janikowski on a four-year contract.

February 8, 2010

Named Clancy Pendergast assistant coach.

January 26, 2010

Named Hue Jackson offensive coordinator.

We are firm believers that strength-of-schedule analysis is essential when ranking players at every position.  We applied this system (without the 5% NFL draft impact) in hindsight to last year's schedule as we were curious how well it could work.  The notable results were that Michael Turner and the Falcons had a #32 ranked (easiest) rush schedule last season and DeAngelo Williams and the Panthers were #30.  

Our SoS considers three factors when determining rankings for schedules for the upcoming year:

80% weight is applied to the quality of defense from the previous year.  We determine quality of defense based on fantasy points given up (run and pass).  However, before we get to that number, we factor in the quality of teams that these defenses faced (basically a strength-of-schedule for the previous year).  This was all done by hand.  Let's just say our boy, Stitchface, has a bit of the carpal tunnel-syndrome going on.    

15% weight is applied to Free-Agent movement.  We ranked each free agent's impact to their former team (2008), and then ranked each team according to whether they added or lost talent overall.

5% weight is applied to the NFL draft impact.  It's tough to gauge a rookie's effectiveness which is why we valued it so low.  Certain teams not only drafted defensemen well in '09, but also will be sliding those guys into highly deficient positions from '08, and usually, anything is an upgrade when you are starting a rookie. 

If you trust Stitchface's formula (and you will eventually), all you need to realize is the following... The higher the SoS number, the easier the fantasy schedule. 

Ranking:  1=toughest  32=easiest

-  The Oakland Raiders started the 2009 season hoping to see some development from Jamarcus Russell and an improvement on their horrid record
-  Oakland started the season 2-7 before replacing Russell as their starting QB with Bruce Gradkowski
-  The Raiders struggled throughout the season finishing with a 5-11 record and finally finding out that Russell was the biggest bust in draft history
-  The team scored 197 points and allowed 379 points against