As mentioned above, I don't feel bad for Raider fans who still bitterly bring up the tuck rule in the snow game at every opportunity, with the odd assumption that the Patriots would have returned to mediocrity had that (correct) call not been made; they seem to act like that one play in 2001 caused the Patriost to win Super Bowls two and three years later.
Back to the Raiders... A year ago it seemed as if the ghost of Al Davis had finally been exorcised from the confines of the Oakland Coliseum. For the first time since I don't when they appeared to have a long range plan, and realized that one-year band-aids were futile. They made some difficult choices and dumped several players that were not going to be part of the rebuilding process, taking their lumps by taking on over $50 million worth of dead money in 2013. That meant there were going to be a ton of holes to fill in 2014, but they would also have plenty of cap space ($63 million) to start filling those roster spots and upgrading the team.
Then free agency comes along and what do the Raiders do? They not only fail to re-sign or franchise 26-year old DE Lamarr Houston, the best player on the team, but they replace him with 31-year old injury prone Justin Tuck (who can't have much tread left on those tires) and 33-year old Antonio Smith.
At OT the Raiders also downgraded, signing Austin Howard while Jason Veldheer signed with Arizona.
Oakland also needed a couple new running backs, so what do they do? They re-sign 3.3 yards per carry Darren McFadden, who over the last few years is out for as many games as he plays - but don't re-sign Rashad Jennings, who out-played McFadden and signed with the Giants.
The Raiders also had major needs at corner and safety, but the only addition in the secondary has been Tarell Brown - who was maybe the 10th or 12th best free agent CB on the market - to just a one-year deal. In the meantime they still need another RB or two, LG, ILB, OLB, WR, and a QB if they (presumably) feel Terrelle Pryor is not the answer there as well as better depth at almost every position.
Looks like the same old Raiders organization to me; the last time they were in the playoffs was when Tampa Bay crushed them in the Super Bowl in the 2002 season.
