While the Raiders may have ended the season with a good feeling overall, they ended it with a meaningless game. Being unable to reach .500 and knocked out of the playoffs before the end of the season obviously means a few things went wrong.
We covered the top performances in the Ballers. Now let’s get to the bad news with our Busters.
Top Buster: HC Josh McDaniels
You’d be hard pressed to find a less inspirational coach than McDaniels. For all he claimed to have learned in his terrible previous stint as a head coach in Denver, he would end up lasting three games *fewer* in his stint with the Raiders.
You just rarely see the wheels fall off faster than 25 games into a big contract as they did with McDaniels. The Raiders were so inept over the first eight games this season that McDaniels was named a Top Buster five times.
As if his coaching — whether it was from a leadership, game management, or offensive play calling standpoint — wasn’t already enough, the way the team responded after to his firing really sent that message home. The feeling in the locker room after the Giants win was definitely more than just about celebrating the win.
QB Jimmy Garoppolo
The savior at QB who McDaniels made a priority this offseason because they knew each other from their days in New England. Garoppolo’s lack of a deep ball was apparent in training camp and was a serious hinderance in the season. He couldn’t get the ball deep to his elite receiver Davante Adams so teams just stacked the box to keep Josh Jacobs under wraps.
The Raiders managed go 3-3 with Garoppolo at quarterback. And each win they had, you heard something along the lines of ‘It wasn’t pretty, but we got the win’. That usually translates to ‘The offense played terrible, but the defense stepped up to drag victory from the jaws of defeat’.
Garoppolo threw more interceptions (nine) than he did touchdowns (seven) in his six starts. And only once did he throw more touchdown passes than he did interceptions. The result was his being named a Buster in four of his six starts. And, of course, getting benched for a fourth round rookie.
CB Marcus Peters
A moment really sticks in my mind with regard to Peters. And it wasn’t on the field. It was in the locker room. It was early in the season and I was speaking with a Raiders DB who I won’t name. And among other things I asked if he credited the addition of Peters to the team for improved play. And he got a big smile on his face, but not the good kind. It was as if I told a bad joke. And he looked to the DB in the locker next to him as he answered as if he understood how bad that joke was. He used the right words in his answer, but I didn’t note his actual response, because his tone didn’t match it.
Suffice to say, his DB teammates didn’t seem to care for his presence on the team. And they liked even less that anyone would suggest he was a positive influence. I just made a mental note of that moment and when Peters was benched late in the season, the response of his teammates lined up perfectly with the feeling I got in that interview.
Peters didn’t fit on this team. There was a reason he went unsigned this offseason for so long before joining the Raiders just before camp. And every time he showed how allergic he was to tackling, the reason became more obvious. Removing him was a big win for the locker room and this defense.
RT Jermaine Eluemunor
Eluemunor was a Buster six times this season. And twice was Top Buster. One of those times was the game in which Khalil Mack put up six sacks. Several of those sacks Mack was lined up across from Eluemunor. One was a strip sack. Eluemunor also gave up a batted ball and a tackle for loss in that game.
Four the the team’s final eight games Eluemunor was named a Buster. He was charged with giving up six sacks over the season along with five penalties.
LG Dylan Parham
Too often this season Parham could be seen missing an assignment, getting worked over, or arriving late to his block. The result was six times a Buster, once a Top Buster. Only once was he a Baller and that was along with the rest of the line in their win over the Giants in Week nine.
DE Tyree Wilson
Even if you want to give him credit for playing better late in the season, it’s not nearly enough. Even if you figure he was going to take some development, he was still not nearly at the level expected.
Through most of this season, he was downright invisible. A non-factor as a pass rusher and a liability against the run. First it was getting out of the blocks at geologic speed. Then it was just an inability to get the edge. This nonsense about him getting pressure from the inside is a terrible misuse of his supposed skillset. He’s supposed to be able to use his length to get the edge. Not clean things up in the middle after the edge rushers force the opposing QB to step up. Maybe next year we will see him develop as an edge rusher.
DT Byron Young
At 70th overall in the third round, Young was the Raiders highest drafted defensive tackle in five years. He would appear in six games early in the season and was inactive the other 12 games.
Young saw the most snaps in Weeks one (20) and two (24) and was a Buster in both games. He didn’t put up a single stat in either game and finished with four combined tackles on the season. That’s the worst output for any rookie defensive lineman taken in the first 95 picks.
WR/RS DeAndre Carter
Carter returned both kicks and punts at times this season. And he didn’t finish in the top 25 in average return yardage in either. The speedy receiver also had just four catches for 39 yards (9.8 ypc) and three rushes for 18 yards.
