Hard to say for sure Bloof. Their offense should be amazing as long as Collins doesn't revert to his form at the beginning of the 2004 season when he first took over for Gannon. They have arguably THE best receiving corps in the league.
Their offensive line as always is big and should be solid with Grove moving to center. Assuming Lamont Jordan can do what he did as a backup in NY as a full time back they should have a monster running hame especially since opposing defenses can't keep too many up in the box because of the receivers.
Basically, the offense should be a monster. The same can't be said for the defense.
They are still up in the air about what kind of defense they will be running base. They want to evaluate the personnel this year and see what happens. More than likely they will go with a 4-3 because unless our rookie linebackers and converted linebackers start showing some amazing ability they just won't have the athletic ability to play in the 3-4. Not to mention that Sapp looked horrible rushing as a DE. I honestly don't think he will do much better this year even if he goes back to his normal DT spot. I think he was pretty washed up before he left Tampa Bay and I still think he is washed up. If the do decide on the 4-3 the front line and LBs should do pretty well.
The question will be can the defensive backfield do anything. Charles Woodson is the only good veteran out of all the cornerbacks. They are hoping that one of their rookies will be able to step in immediately and take over at RCB. If not, they will be forced to go with a veteran that has never really done anything. However, both of the rookies vying for RCB are very fast (sub 4.3 speed) and I think that one of them will be starting by the time the year starts.
The current starting safeties are Derrick Gibson who is in his 3rd or 4th year and Stuart Schweigert who is in his 2nd year. Gibson is big and physical but has had problems staying healthy and learning his position. Schweigert showed some bright spots last year but he also made at least two horrendous missed tackles where he tried to slam into the ball carrier and knock them down instead of wrapping them up. Both of these guys have the potential to be great safeties if they can upgrade their mental game. If not, look for a lot of deep balls caught by tight ends across the middle of the field.
Special teams should continue to get better this year. Joe Avezzano is a great special teams coach and being his second year with the Raiders can only mean improvement. The Raiders should have pretty good depth this year which is a good sign for special teams. As fo rthe kicking game, the Raiders have the best punter in the league and one of the best place kickers. Although Janikowski hasn't kicked off into the endzone as much as they thought they would when they drafted him, he has led the league or been close on touchbacks almost every year. A lot of the reason for this is the fact that they started using the new 'K' ball the year he came into the league. For those that don't know, kickers used to be able to use their own balls so they worked them out and got them nice and soft before the games. The rules changed and the 'K' balls are basically fresh new balls stamped with a K that the refs bring out just for the kicking. Since they are much harder it is more difficult to kick them with distance. He has been very consistent with his place kicking though and can be relied on when the game is on the line. Lechler's punting stats speak for themself.
If the coaches work on the basics like tackling and position the defense has a chance to be pretty good. They are pretty young across the board except on the defensive line and even there they have some young talent.
Norv Turner has the potential to be a great head coach. He was always a great offensive coordinator and he is very inventive in the offensive game. Now that he has a powerful running back (hopefully), he will be able to work his offense like he wants. A smash mouth running game backed up by deep threat receivers. The players on offense are perfectly suited to Turner's offensive scheme.
Rob Ryan is still unproven as a defensive coordinator. Last year he tried to install a system that the Raiders did not have the personnel for. Not to mention that a lot of the reason the defense was bad last year was because of the players not being where they were supposed to be or doing what they were supposed to do. If they understand the system better this year and learn how to tackle, we will be able to truly see what kind of coach Ryan is. A good sign is that the players still believe in him even though they had a tough time last year. When there were problems the players admitted that it was their inability to do what needed to be done and had nothing to do with coaching. Hopefully that is the truth.
To summarize, it should pretty much all come down to the defense. If the defense is in the bottom of the league again, the Raiders still may make the playoffs on the strength of their offense, but they won't last long at all. If the defense is in the top 20, they should do okay in the playoffs and maybe even make the AFC Championship game or the SuperBowl. If the defense is in the top 10 they have a good shot at taking home the title. This is of course all under the assumption that the offense will play up to it's potential. If the players are slacking and not putting forth the effort then we can look forward to another 5-11 or 6-10 year.
Well, that was pretty lengthy. I hope it wasn't over the top. 8)
