No one expects free agency to solve all of a team’s issues. But what you don’t expect is for an already losing team — like the 6-11 Raiders — to come out of free agency looking markedly worse than when they went in.
Signing Jimmy Garoppolo made sense. But letting Derek Carr go without getting anything in return was a huge face plant.
After Garoppolo, the top free agent signing was Jakobi Meyers. And he does his best work in the slot, where the Raiders already have Hunter Renfrow.
The addition of Meyers cost the team $15 million a season. All while simultaneously trading Darren Waller to save $15 million, so essentially it was one of the league’s top tight ends replaced by a position player they didn’t really need.
The common thread here seems to be having played in McDaniels’s offense before. Which would also explain the addition of Phillip Dorsett.
Mike Sando at The Athletic spoke to an executives to get their take on the Raiders moves, and one basically said what everyone else has been thinking.
“They want familiarity, but they have downgraded in every way.”
Since that exec said that, the Raider also added 38-year-old QB Brian Hoyer — the third former Patriots QB the Raiders have added in the short Josh McDaniels era.
I suppose there’s value in having players who know your scheme. But it also shows signs of McDaniels’s inability or unwillingness to cater his scheme to the talent he has. Which another executive noted has been a problem with both McDaniels and Jon Gruden before him.
“Maybe they should have a coach who can work with the guys they’ve got.”
Then again, one could argue that several head coaches attempted to find success with Derek Carr at quarterback and only Jack Del Rio was able to do it and for just one season.
In that regard, we’re in uncharted territory regardless of what moves the Raiders make outside of the quarterback position. And for that, this is very much on McDaniels and his system to see if these seeming downgrades in talent will outperform expectations.
