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Around one year ago at this time, the Las Vegas Raiders were supposedly buoyant.
The malignant approach of fired head coach Josh McDaniels had been exercised from the franchise, victory cigars were a thing again, players felt heard, and even Las Vegas team owner Mark Davis seemed to have a renewed pep of optimism in his step. Even with a subpar 2-3 record in the P.M. (post-McDaniels) era, things were starting to feel right again heading into mid-December of 2023. There was hope. And as the remainder of the season unfurled, it seemed well-founded.
The Raiders and interim head coach Antonio Pierce would take McDaniels’ 3-5 start and marry it to a 5-4 finish. Rookie quarterback Aidan O’Connell would replace the benched Jimmy Garoppolo and look like a feasible project. Even skeptical wideout Davante Adams was willing to give the situation another chance. It all had the makings of something with … well, it had makings. That was a start.
On Sunday, that start finally and fully cratered. Frankly, if we’re being honest, the implosion really began at the turn into October, when the 2-2 Raiders began an epic descent to the depths of the AFC, by virtue of a losing streak that reached nine games with Sunday’s 28-13 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a defeat that left Las Vegas sitting at 2-11 and tied with the New York Giants for the worst record in the NFL — but also without O’Connell, who appeared to suffer a significant leg injury in the loss. And if the NFL draft were to begin today, the Raiders would own the No. 1 overall pick on tiebreakers and with significant gusto.
That 2023 post-McDaniels buoyancy? The 2024 Raiders are a cinder block locked in a safe buried under the Titanic.
Now that I think about it, strike the previous assessment. This plummet to an all-too-familiar depth didn’t start in October. It began last offseason, when the Raiders knew they had a lingering quarterback problem on their hands and answered it by signing journeyman Gardner Minshew…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/las-vegas-raiders-created-a-qb-problem-last-offseason-now-tom-brady-may-solve-it–as-an-owner-163343395.html
Author : Yahoo Sports
Publish date : 2024-12-09 16:33:00
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