Holding Their Own

David White's blog has been impressive during signing season, and now he's reporting that Special Teams Pro Bowl alternate Ike Ekejiuba has re-signed with the Raiders. Good news.

Hopefully we'll see the Raiders get a Tackle or two, a Safety, maybe a Wide Receiver out of the free agent pool, but hanging onto our best players is a pretty good strategy so far.

Hater of the Week: Hosting.com

I was driving home the other day and I saw this billboard. As you can see, some asshole of a company called hosting.com will protect your data from those dastardly Raiders fans. These fucking idiots must take the "Pillaging just for fun" lyric of the "The Autumn Wind" literally. I've forwarded this picture to feedback@raiders.com, to alert the Raiders to this atrocity. I can't believe they would insult their fans this way.

I'll post any response from the Raiders that I receive.

No Safety

Yesterday's mildly shocking news of Gibril Wilson's release seems to remove any glimmer of success from last year's offseason spending spree. While not surprising given his huge salary numbers, modest impact on improving the run defense, and the Raiders' sudden need for a lot of cash and cap space, it is at least a little surprising for two reasons: Al singled him out as the one free agent acquisition to which Lane Kiffin did not contribute, and this leaves the Raiders almost completely bare at the critical safety position.

With mildly successful Wilson and Kalimba Edwards gone, Javon and Kwame must be next on the chopping block - or at least in line for restructuring. Kwame's release would reportedly clear up $7.2 million under the cap. A no brainer. Javon may be trickier. And what about Tommy Kelly? The home grown guy would typically be considered safe, but after Al went out of his way to declare Gibril his guy, one never knows.

So what happens at the safety position in 2009? Cable benched Huff for ineffectiveness at free safety, and now he's listed as a strong safety on Raiders.com. But other than his man-to-man skills against TEs, he was ineffective at SS. That leaves Hiram Eugene at FS, Rashad Baker, and Tyvon Branch the only other real safeties on the roster. Not terribly inspiring.

The good news: defensive backs coach Lionel Washington. He has a good reputation, and the hire got good press. But we'll see if he has the talent in place to be successful or if the Raiders need to make some moves to finally figure out that safety position.

Renaming the Hater of the Week Award

I was checking various reactions to the Nmamdi and Lechler signings, when I came across Nancy Gay's dispatch from the Scouting Combine about Tom Cable. It really is remarkable, and you should read the whole thing. Here are some money quotes:

Cable believes in building through the draft and not free agency. It just so happens that the Raiders' punter and cornerback who just won the NFL lottery this week were Oakland draft selections.

That's a nice change for the Raiders. They were bound to overspend in free agency anyway. At least now they did it with home-grown, known quantities.

And there's this:

As a former college coach and a longtime position coach, Cable always has enjoyed breaking down game film on players. It's a discipline that not all NFL head coaches employ. But the good ones - Bill Belichick, Bill Parcells - tend to relish doing it.

"For example, as an offensive-line coach, I've always made my own (video) cutups," Cable said. "One of the things that works for me in Oakland, I like to break down each kid over and over."

Like Belichick, Cable will even go back and look at how a potential draft pick performed in high school. For example, after a good or bad game, who did he seek out first: his parents or his posse?

"You put your stock in this: How they prepared themselves for this? Are they in shape? Did they improve themselves physically? You get a chance to talk to them face to face," Cable said of his combine experience this week.

The Raiders already knew what they had in Lechler and Asomugha. Now it's up to Cable to find the next slam dunk draft picks for the Raiders, and you get the sense he has a good idea how to do that.

I mean, wow. I know she's not saying, "Tom Cable is the next Bill Belichick." But this is a downright rosy assessment of the Raiders' offseason so far, and practically glowing prose about Coach Cable.

Dan always likes to say that the best time to be a Raiders fan is in the offseason. This year it's especially true.

And the Hater of the Week Award is no longer named after Nancy Gay.

Briefly Catching Up on the Offseason

Haven't had a lot of time to post lately, but it's not for lack of interest. Was discussing the Nnamdi signing with Unk today, and we got to thinking that if you selectively go back in time to late December when the Raiders had two games remaining, it's been a pretty good run. Won the two games, JaMarcus played very well, kept the coach who put it together, assembled a reasonable (experienced) staff, signed Chris Johnson, signed Shane Lechler, signed Nnamdi.

Not bad.

I'm rooting for Cable. Sure, it's in my own self interest given that Sundays will be miserable for me if he fails, but I found his enthusiasm for the Raiders at his press conference endearing. He's a lifetime Raider fan, which counts for something. And the fact that all our big free agents are returning (recognizing that money is involved here) means that guys want to play for him.

Obviously I'm thrilled with the signings. I'm not sure it's even worth discussing. Sure, a remarkable amount of money and cap space was spent, but for two guys considered the best at their positions (per All Pro selections), pay them. Mr. Mackey is discussing Nnamdi's signing on ESPN's NFL Live right now, and just watching the Nnamdi highlights has me fired up for next season.

Came across this interesting Schefter blog entry. I was wondering how long it would take for Porter to come back after stealing a bunch of Jacksonville's money. If he returns and the Raiders draft a WR early, we could end up with a record number of #2 / #3 WRs: Walker, Carter, Higgins, Schilens, Porter, and a developing rookie.

Fittingly, John Clayton is now discussing the inevitable release of Marvin Harrison.

Al Can Still Sign

The coaching search may have devolved into a convoluted process that became the target of much ridicule, but Al has succeeded beyond expectations in terms of signing key in-house free agents.

Bronco-buster Chris Johnson a week ago, All-Pro Shane Lechler yesterday, and CLOAK man-crush NNAMDI ASOMUGHA today.

Three years and at least $45 million. A similarly good investment may be a black #21 jersey.

Justin Fargas Hearts Weed

I was going to post a round up of reactions to yesterday's Al-fest, but instead, via David White, is a video of some guy named Yukmouth smoking a fat-ass blunt at Justin Fargas' house.