We should have a TOTALLY unpredictable offense.

[DeadRinger]

So the pick of Bowden means we’ll be releasing Rod Smith, which means we won’t have a short-yardage back.

Gruden’s going to have to find ways to work Ingold in on short yardage. I can’t remember seeing Ingold run it once last season, although I’m sure I’m wrong. But he’s going to have to do it this season, he’s the only hammer we’ll have.

I can tell you this tho. We’re going to have a fucking TON of quickness and speed to really threaten the edge. Jet sweeps w Ruggs, running it outside w Bowden, Richard and Jacobs.

Gruden has weapons ALL FUCKING OVER THE PLACE. There’s no reason whatsoever our play calling should EVER become vanilla/predictable this coming season. There are just WAY too many options for us to just line up and do the run/run/pass bullshit that got us crushed last season.

There shouldn’t be a SINGLE team in this league who can stop us. With our weapons and OL, We should be a top 5 offense. Barring a rash of hideous injuries, no excuse for anything less.

[silver & black]

Agreed. There are no excuses this year. You know I wasn't a big fan of bringing Gruden back. We''ll see what he does with all the weapons he has. No excuses for not winning 10 games next season.... none.

[piratepride]

I think even Carr knows this is his prove it year. Media had a hard on for just about every other QB to the Raiders not named Derek Carr!
Jamies Winston
Cam Newton
Brady
Love
Tua
Year before it was Gruden was rumored to be salivating over Kyler Murray. The media was just a year off, all of us fans knew we needed 1 more year to fully know if he's the man or not.
I agree there shouldn't be any excuses in year three. He's got all his weapons back , so they should be able to pickup where we left off. While I don't have warm fuzzies knowing Ruggs and all the other rookies won't have a full mini camp, at least it'll be even across the league.
I heard Gruden mention he plans on keeping his throwback playcalling style by employing 3 TE sets with Waller, Witten, and Moreau. He'll play action with Ruggs and Tyrell some of the time, but he's looking to punish 1st with the run the way we did in London vs the Bears. I don't think Gruden has it in his DNA to let it rip and be careless with the ball. I'd love nothing more than to utilize all our weapons and put the defense on thier heels by going 5 wide, but that's not Gruden.
He needs to have rythm, and his running backs need to understand blitz pickup before he can trust them running any type of wheel route. Hopefully Jacobs sees more passes now that he's picked up more of the offense.

[piratepride]

As you said, I think Ruggs will make an immediate impact on jet sweeps, WR quick screens and the occasional deep pass.
I've heard Mayock say he'll force two deep saftey looks from the opposing defenses, if this happens it'll help the other guys a shit ton. No more Denver D playing in your face man defense knowing we don't have anyone who can beat thier secondary one on one. Ruggs speed will open up the 8 front looks, no more doubling Waller, and Renfrow will win more often than not against a teams 3rd corner.

[DeadRinger]

You have a point that there won't be much of an offseason.

At the very least our first half of the season should be as good as last year, so maybe we start 4-4. and we should be DRAMATICALLY improved in the 2nd half - we need to go 6-2, which could put us in a wildcard.

Because we ain't gonna win the division.

10-6 should be the absolute floor of our goals for this season.

[piratepride]

Last year we all thought 10-6 was a reach, considering the talent we've added this off season 10-6 would be the floor.
I'm fully expecting Carr to lead us to a wild card no matter the record.
Last year was full of alot of teams losing, the AFC was a complete mess right down to the last game of the season. I'm expecting more of the same this year due to all the turnover this season specifically at quarterback. With that said I also look for mediocre teams to make a huge jump alao.

Steelers-Ben is coming back for 1 maybe 2 years and wants to go out with a bang, and a defense to help him out.

Browns- too much talent to not win 9 games this year

Bucs- were probably going to face them in a home opener in sin city, hope our new D can hang with this talented offense.

Denver- ready to take the next step, Juedy, Sutton, Hamler, and Melvin Gordon will cause problems.

Alec Ingold was like 3 out of 4 on his 4th and 1 runs for us last year. His last one he got stuffed versus GB I believe and was a huge momentum swing in that game. He's a damn good option for us amd per his Instagram he's not taking any days off. He's training with Kolton Miller, catching passes from Carr along with Zay Jones. He's ready for the next step in Grudens offense.



By the way, have any of you followed Maliek Collins on Instagram. I didn't think his feet were that fast. He looks primed and ready to go...lighting quick feet.

[DeadRinger]

Collins has been my 2nd favorite addition next to Littleton. I don't think people really understand how disruptive he's going to be. That's why I'm so pissed we only did a 1-yr deal w him.

It would be great if Carr is more comfortable this coming season throwing passes to Ingold. Dude can slip out in goal-line situations and catch the quick, sneaky play-action passes. Last year he caught every pass thrown to him, but that was only 6. And 1 was for a TD. So developing that part of our game more only makes us that much more dangerous.

Moving the ball up and down the field wasn't necessarily our problem last season. Our offense was 11th in yds. Scoring was our fucking problem, we were 24th in points. Add in a shitty defense and we were 27th in point differential.

ALL of that should change dramatically this coming season and if it doesn't, people need to be fired. Gruden needs to hire an OC who can help him put together more imaginative game plans and help him adjust better at halftime. Olson has ALWAYS been a SHIT OC. Dude has had ONE winning season in TWELVE years as OC of various teams. We have GOT to get rid of that dude, he's a loss magnet.