Talking Darrius Heyward Bey and other young Raides with Just Blog Baby

With the Oakland Raiders taking on the San Diego Chargers tonight, I think it good timing to release my interview with Chris Shellcroft of Just Blog Baby, an Oakland Raiders webpage. Just Blog Baby is quirky, funny, and honest and you should all swing over there and check it out.

And if you’re looking for more to read we’ve updated our scouting report page which now includes 80 plus scouting reports

1). I have to start here. Was the Carson Palmer trade worth it? That’s an awful lot to give up.
It is still far too early to put any type of a grade on the Palmer trade. Let me just say this much about the whole thing. With a healthy Darren McFadden and Palmer playing at a Pro Bowl level we’re talking about an offense with the potential to be a among the NFL elite. In that scenario there is no price too high you can place on great QB play balanced with an explosive running game. As far as the picks given up go…let’s be honest. Neither the Raiders nor Bengals have a great recent history of making the most of their first round picks. If Cincinnati uses those two picks to grab the next Dan Wilkinson or Akili Smith then they will mean nothing. For Oakland, if this team does in fact turn the corner then those two picks will mean nothing more than open roster spots for veterans. In short, time will tell on this deal. My knee jerk reaction is that they paid far too high a price but, again, you cannot put any value on a franchise caliber QB. If that is what the Raiders ultimately get then these two picks will look like pennies.

2). Will the Raiders ever trade with the Patriots again? It always seems they get fleeced
Two things you can set your watch to on draft day are the Raiders taking the fastest player from the combine and the Raiders trading with the Pats. I realize the Randy Moss deal looms large but the Pats haven’t exactly got too return on their investment in recent dealings. New England badly misses Richard Seymour and we still can’t truly determine how much they’ll get from Nate Solder, who does look good, which was the pick they got from Oakland. Another deal with the Raiders that the Pats got nothing out of was the move for Derrick Burgess. Two years ago the two teams swapped picks on draft day with New England moving up in round two to take Ron Brace who has yet to make an impact. Clearly these two teams have a business relationship. How much more dealing they’ll do in the future remains to be seen. Al Davis and Bill Belichick got along very well. With Davis gone there is no way to know if the trades winds will continue to blow from the Northeast to the East Bay.

3). They say it takes three years to evaluate a draft how’s the 2009 draft class looking?
Until his mysterious benching last week the biggest name from that class, Darrius Heyward-Bey, was showing some real promise. He came into last week’s game with more receiving yards than Roddy White, believe it or not. Still, when you take a receiver in the top 10 you’re expecting game changing plays. The jury is still out on DHB. The other name that grabbed headlines was Mike Mitchell taken in the second round. Mitchell hasn’t exactly made a huge impact but his talent is real. Injuries and defensive schemes have kept Mitchell out of an expanded role. We’re all waiting to see what kind of a player he can be with a clearly defined role and more snaps. Now the gem of the ’09 class is third round pick Matt Shaughnessy. Before his season ending injury this year Shaughnessy was well on his way to becoming a Pro Bowl caliber defensive end. He is a great pass rusher and was really improving against the run.

The guy that has been lost in the mix is Louis Murphy. He jumped out as the class of Oakland’s draft but has never found consistency week in and week out. Plus a hamstring injury kept him out of camp and the first month of the season. Currently Murphy is buried in the depth chart and could be one his way out of Oakland.

Of the 7 players drafted in ’09, 5 are on the active roster. I’m not going to say this draft was a huge success but it has provided the Raiders with some key contributors. Still, this class will be determined by how Heyward-Bey goes. I’d have to say that we’re still looking at a grade of incomplete on this class.  

  … [visit site to read more]