Are The Raiders Planning A Big Roster Move Before Week One??

There was a lesson to be learned with that Wednesday night opener, Patriots-Seahawks. It's a lesson that Raiders fans know very well. It's a lesson that people who talk about football on national television, who have a lot of followings, maybe they know and they just ignore it for clicks, or maybe they don't know, but the lesson I'm going to be teaching you in the Around the NFL segment, at the end of this video, it's going to be a cheat code for you to be able to understand how football works. I already feel myself getting angry. I'm not really angry at the outcome of the game, but I'm angry at the people who like to proclaim things and say things, and then once it all comes crashing down, immediately go, oh, we should've known. Drake May was horrible, right? We should've known. We're gonna get into that at the end of this because it relates back to the Raiders. Ashton Gentee is quoted as saying, he never thought he was gonna be out for week one. Well, we did, we did, brother, but that you're happy and you're feeling good. There's a quote there. John Spytek is restructuring some contracts, and he's restructuring contracts for players that we just signed, which is interesting. We'll talk about that as well. Then Tom Brady and Kurt Cousins chatting up a storm. Another reason why I really do think Kurt Cousins is going to be a little bit better than people think. We talked about deep sleepers in the past last few videos. One of these really bad teams, us, the Browns, the Cardinals, the Jets, the Titans, the Falcons, one of these teams is going to make the playoffs, history says, each of the last four seasons. One of those grouping of Super Bowl odd list teams are going to make the playoffs. If we do, it's probably gonna be because Kurt Cousins is playing really, really well, or he gets hurt immediately. We don't want that to happen. And Mendoza comes in and lights the world on fire. But we're gonna get into a bunch of different things right now, starting with Ashengenti, most likely playing week one. Well, I was pretty confident about the Raiders being able to handle their business week one and beat the Dolphins, but now that we've heard about the Brock Bowers injury, I think we need to take a look at the market and make sure we are as confident as possible and talk through this. So let me pull up, Dolphins heading into Las Vegas, and right now, purchasing the yes contract is a 60% chance that the Raiders are gonna win the game. Let's talk it through. I do think the Raiders have the better quarterback and the better weaponry, although Devon Achan is now probably the best player in the game with Brock Bowers out one to two weeks with that meniscus trim. We have home field advantage because you don't expect the Dolphins to take over Allegiant Stadium. I'm a little bit worried about this game. It was essentially a pick-em before, and now it's all up in the air. Brock Bowers is gonna be out. I'm still gonna be confident in the Raiders, and if I purchase the yes contract and I put my $25 in, the return is 39.88. I don't know, only time will tell. But I will say this to you guys. If you're interested in checking out Cal-She, use code ALLABOARD to instantly get 25 when you trade 25. And the interesting thing about Cal-She that I think brings it above your typical sportsbook is that when you're using a typical sportsbook, you're betting against the house. You are not doing that with Cal-She. It is a peer-to-peer trading system where you are purchasing yes or no contracts based on specific outcomes on a bunch of different topics from politics to media to sports, you name it. We set the market. Here we go. Ryan McFadden, two days, September 10th. We play in three days. Can we just, hold on, hold on. We play in three days. The football season is back. There's nothing like it. Even yesterday, the game wasn't great. But man, it's just football. It was just fun. Gente. Raiders Gente Enkel feels really good, excited for Dolphins. Las Vegas Raiders running back Ashton Gente said he feels really good and is super excited to play in the season opener against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium. Gente returned to practice Monday as a full participant after being sidelined since August 23rd due to, that's like two weeks ago, that's crazy, due to injuring his ankle in training camp practice. He also practiced on Thursday, increasing the likelihood of his availability for week one. Anytime away from the game it's tough, Gente said, but to get back out there, mainly with the guys, man, it felt good. When Gente went down after attempting to catch a low pass from Kirk Cousins and had to be carried off the field, it seemed like the Raiders would be without their star running back who will play a vital role in offense. In reality, it didn't take long for Gente to realize his ankle injury wasn't as serious as it looked. Gente said he sighed in relief after trainers helped him off the field. He didn't have any concerns about whether he would play against the Dolphins. I knew it wasn't anything too bad, even though I couldn't put any pressure on my foot, Gente said on Thursday, his first time speaking to reporters since the injury. I figured it just wouldn't be anything that's too long term. I'll be honest with you, I thought there was a world where even if he was like 75% ready to go, that they should hold him out. I would be understanding of the idea that they would not play him. To see what we got, Mike Washington, we trust this running back room. The offensive line has improved, so we should be able to have success with Mike Washington and these new linemen. But now with Brock out for a game or two, they're incentivized to play Gente even more because I don't care about, you guys know me, I'm anti-tank until it's week 12 and we're one and 11. Then you make the season worth it by making sure you play the young guys and go get the top pick. But right now, I want to win every single game. So if Brock can't go, this isn't me now saying, oh, well if Brock can't go, just sit Gente, lose the game, guaranteed, no, no, no, forget that. We're not guaranteed tomorrow. We want to win every single game. Mixed in with that, it sounds like Ash and Gente is like 100%. I don't expect them to have like an ankle brace. Maybe they'll wrap it up a little bit tighter and make sure, Derek Carr said this on his podcast, you wrap up both ankles so they don't know which one it was when they're playing on the field because they'll attack it, these scumbag defensive players, although our players will probably do the same thing. All that to say, very happy and excited that Gente is fully back. Fantasy owners, you can take a deep breath. Although I do expect, here's what's interesting, and I want your comments down below about this. If the game is played and we have a really good rushing attack, and Ash and Gente has 20 carries, 20 carries, and Mike Washington has 13 carries, or if Gente has 15 carries and Washington has 10 carries, they split time like that. Do you think that's because they are protecting Gente from tweaking something, or do you think that was always the plan? Even if he was 100% healthy, Gente's going to get 68% of the snaps, and Mike Washington's going to get the others, or was it always the case, or was it because of the injury? That's kind of what the question comes to mind for the Dolphins game with this topic in particular. I think Ash and Gente's 100% healthy. He's a full participant in practice on a Wednesday. He's not questionable, he's not limited, he's a full participant. So if Mike Washington gets a lot of carries in this game, I think, personally, that means that they just want to get him involved pretty quickly and get him up to NFL regular season speed, and it has nothing to do with the injury. So let me know in the comments below what you think about that. Let's talk about what Spytek is cooking up here, because there's a little bit of a restructuring happening with some players now. I do want to let you know, but 50% are not yet subscribed. If you're enjoying it, if you're watching me live and you're not yet subscribed, it's free. Hit that subscribe button. We're trying to get to 17,000. Thank you so much. Let me move my floating head back to the other side of the screen. Is it covering anything, or are we good to go? We are good to go. Levi, shout out to Levi on Just Vlog Baby. Could something be brewing in Las Vegas? The Raiders went on quite a spending spree during the offseason. Between that, several players returning, or excuse me, several returning players on big ticket deals and a number of bad contracts still on the books. Las Vegas wasn't exactly flush with salary cap space ahead of the 2026 season. So on Thursday morning, the Raiders restructured the contracts of Jalen Naylor and Quay Walker, both of whom signed with the team in free agency. By converting some of the money into a signing bonus and adding some void years, John Spytek and company created an $8.2 million cap space. And while this may immediately signal to fans that a sizable move is coming, that is not the only option on the table. So let's go over the choices that the Silver and Black have now. With a total of roughly $11.5 million in salary cap space after the aforementioned restructure. So option one is the Raiders signing a free agent. Brock Bowers is injured. Darius Slain is the lowest hanging fruit here, but the team didn't necessarily need to restructure to accommodate what would likely be a vet minimum deal. So in addition, a big addition feels unlikely, although a free agent could still be in the picture with the Raiders only previously having between two and three million in cap space. They had no flexibility. Now Las Vegas can add someone cheap to the roster and not have to completely deplete their funds. Option one doesn't feel entirely likely to me, although Darius Slain wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. I just think they are more confident in their wide receiver group than most people are, than I am, than everybody else is that's not in that building. They believe in Klinkuviax's ability to scheme a bunch of stuff up. Now they were more confident in that group because Brock Bowers was supposed to be out there. And I know, we all love Michael Mayer. He ain't Brock Bowers. Let's stop pretending like Michael Mayer would be a top three tight end in the league if he wasn't on their team. Maybe he would be. We just haven't seen that consistent production yet. And I know the Dolphins are horrible. If Klinkuviax is able to have a successful passing game in this game without Brock Bowers, that's all we'll need to see to know that he can scheme some stuff up. That doesn't mean we shouldn't add a wide receiver in the future. We absolutely should. But it'll be a good sign moving forward. Last year we thought, oh, Pete Carroll can just scheme a bunch of stuff up with Chip Kelly and that didn't work out. So adding somebody, don't hate it, but only time will tell. Oh, I didn't realize that this was in the way. I apologize, let me get that out of here. Option two, Las Vegas strikes a trade. To trade for a player, a team must have the salary cap space available to account for their salary cap hit that season. They cannot do restructures or cap clearing after the deal, so theoretically, the Raiders could be angling for a trade and have positioned themselves to take on another player's 2026 cap hit. Obviously, folks are going to think about Max Crosby going to Dallas. Las Vegas might be getting someone in return, like Rashad Geary, Malik Hooker, or even Derron Bland. The Raiders could also just strike a trade for another player who fits under their current salary cap constraints. At wide receiver, the two names that stick out are Jawan Jennings, 9.5 million, Jerry Judy, 10.4 million. Of course, that would put Las Vegas back at square one in terms of finances, but it would at least add a solid pass catcher to the offense if they want to do that. Again, this is an option, but a trade isn't super likely, at least not for right now. And I do think, look, there is precedent for this. We don't know what was Pete Carroll or what was Jon Spitek last year, but right before the season, we added Amari Cooper. Like, right before the season, we added him. And then he saw what it was like, and he was like, you know, I'm out, I'm out. Peace, I'm not doing this. So there is precedent for a Jon Spitek left front office to add another player right before the season that might turn out to be somebody that's going to be a mix. I do think it's getting a little late to add someone that is going to play a lot in this game in particular. If we do trade for somebody, it's going to be down the line. I don't expect this to happen either, because trading for somebody kind of elicits a buying mentality, which doesn't feel real to me at the current moment, but you know, only time will tell with that too. Option three, Jon Spitek keeps a rainy day fund. Honestly, this move was probably just made to give the Raiders some financial flexibility. The league is unpredictable, and having around 11.5 million in salary cap space feels a lot better than having just two or three million. Las Vegas needs to be ready for any situation that may come up. Maybe the Silver and Black are looking playoff bound halfway point and want to add a player. This gives them the flexibility to do that. Maybe, as well mentioned, they deal Crosby again and need to take on the salary of a player in return. This gives them flexibility to do that as well. A surprise player could get cut or waived, and having your finances straightened out in that scenario is a great thing. And this flexibility could matter not only to this year, but next season and into the 2027 season, which is kind of option four. The reason why I wanted to talk about all this is, again, to kind of praise Jon Spitek in this regard. He knows, now more than ever, about the unpredictability of the National Football League. And, thank God, we had our financials in order when the Max Crosby trade got undone that we were still able to keep Clay Walker and Quiddy Pay and Malcolm Coons and Jalen Naylor, and the Kobe Dean, because we all had the same thought. Max is back on the roster. Are we going to be able to keep everybody? And we are, and we were, and it was tight, but we were able to do it. Spitek now knows that this league is cutthroat and people will stab you in the back and screw you over. We need to have a little bit of extra cash in the bank no matter what happens, no matter if we're buying or selling at the trade deadline, if we're going to pick somebody up, if we're cutting somebody, we need to have flexibility. And this is why moves like this make me want to keep heaping praise onto John Spitek. So you guys let me know, which of those options do you think? Are we trading for somebody? Are we trading away somebody and taking somebody back? Are we going to sign somebody? Is it just a rainy day fund? Is it for 2027? It could be a lot of different things. I'll tell you what, though. What I do like is Brady making sure that him and Kirk Cousins are on the same page. Let's talk about this a little bit here. Julia, on Bleacher Report, we'll just zip through this here pretty quickly because it's a long article. Go read the whole thing on Bleacher Report, but the title is Kirk Cousins says, Tom Brady has been an unbelievable resource for the Raiders ahead of the 2026 season, blah, blah, blah. I've enjoyed having him as a resource. I mean, when I first got here, I was like, wait, so I can just text him and he'll just give me 23 years of pro football experience. He'll text me back and they're like, yeah. Cousins continued. You could sit in a meeting with Fernando and Aiden and say, why don't we just ask Tom what he would do? Sometimes you're like, is he going to get back to us in a day or two? And many times it's two minutes and we've got a response. So that's been a joy. And that's awesome. Let's see what Brady's input has been a couple weeks ago. Is anything, when you discussed with him, changed your approach at all to how you're doing things in year 15? It's a great question. I've really enjoyed having him as a resource. I mean, when I first got here, I was like, wait, so I can just text him and he'll give me 23 years of pro football experience. He'll text me back and they're like, yeah. So he made himself very available. It's been unbelievable. You sit in a meeting with Fernando and Aiden and say, why don't we just ask Tom what he would do? And sometimes you're like, is he going to get back to us in a day or two? And many times it's two minutes and we've got a response. So that's been a joy to have as a resource. And if anything, and certainly you can learn a lot from him that's new to you, but there's also sometimes some affirmation where you say, okay, I'm not crazy. This was what my gut told me was the way to do it. But the fact that he's saying that's the way he did it, now I have a little bit more conviction and confidence in what felt right. Now I know it's right because I know that it did work for him too. Great resource to have. Peter Schrager indicated last week on the Pat Mac to be sure that Brady could also have a role in the decision to name Cousins the starter over Mendoza. As long as Tom Brady is a part of this, I'm told this year he is very vocal and has been part of it. They weren't going to rush their first round overall pick onto the field. Peter Schrager said, Cousins will now help that guidance from Brady this off season will pay off with a weak one winning against the Dolphins when the season officially kicks off. Blah, blah, blah. Cool, cool, cool. I mean, that's just a cool story in my opinion. I love having Tom Brady as a resource. I know some people were anti it. Now we've kind of all gotten on the bandwagon. He wants to win and he's doing what he thinks is right and he's the greatest football player to ever live. So I think you should listen to him. Speaking of listening, all right, listen up here. I just want to get this take on the record because we live in a world of hyperbole. I think you think you know where I'm going with this and I'm not. Seahawks beat the Patriots. Drew Locke outperforms Drake May. Drake May looked like Doo-Doo Magoo. One of my takes is always weak one's a liar. Weak one's your ex-girlfriend. All these kind of things, right? Or your ex-boyfriend, you know, don't trust him, whatever. I take issue with the anointing of players, coaches, GMs, all this stuff after a full season. Example, Caleb Williams, bad rookie year, probably had a lot to do with the person I'm coaching. Caleb Williams, second year, pretty good. I'm not going to say it was great. He didn't even complete 60% of his passes. They won like nine games by like one score where they were down in the fourth quarter with two minutes to go, something like that. And now he's on the cover of Madden, 26 or 27 or whatever it is. Drake May leads the team to a Super Bowl, looks awesome in year two. And now this year, a lot of people are like, he's a top five quarterback. This is a take that I have that's, it's going to blow your mind, ready? Here's my take about all this stuff. When I see someone do something awesome, here's what I say, do it again, do it again. And then I will take you seriously. Derek Carr in his third year was incredible. Didn't do it again at that level. Could have been because of injury, could have been because of coaching, the organization, the team around. Sure, it's not all his fault, never did that again. Jane Daniels, awesome rookie year, didn't do it again. I'm so tired of the want from people to be first to something. It's not about, if you're gonna give your take, it's in your opinion, it's not about being first. It's about being right. It's about having accurate information. So to all the Patriots fans who are like, oh no, the sky's falling, you should not feel that way because you should not expect Drake May to do the same thing he did last year. You should say, do it again and then I'll know that you're awesome because here's how the NFL works. You come in as a rookie and you suck or you come in as a rookie and you're awesome but most of the time you come in as a rookie and you suck and then you improve and then you improve and then you have a great year in year two or three and then you become the main target of every single defensive coordinator in the National Football League. The reason why I think Malik Willis could beat us is because we have no idea what he's going to look like in a dolphin uniform with Jeff Halfley coaching the team. But a year from now, we'll be able to smoke him unless he's awesome, we'll be able to smoke him because we know what to expect. Drake May last year was awesome and no one knew what the hell was happening. He was the best quarterback of all time completing passes 20 yards down the field up until November when people started to change the coverage and now the Patriots have a target on their back and they're going to get coached differently because there is a full year of film on them and coordinators stood up all night trying to figure out how to stop him. And the way to separate good players from great players is to be able to get around having the target on your chest and beating the defensive coordinators that stood up all night to stop you. Which is why I can't stand the Kayla Williams is going to win the MVP this year talk. If it happens, that's awesome. You got it, you figured it out. But if it doesn't, it's going to be because people have film on this guy now and now he's a target and he needs to complete 60% of his passes for me to believe he can do it. Do it again, do it again. Even someone as great as Patrick Mahomes, one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever touch a football. It hurts me to say that with the Raiders flag behind me but it's the truth. He is never, ever, ever going to touch the first year he was in the league with his stats. Never again. I'm going to pull it up. Patrick Mahomes stats. And you would think someone as incredible as Patrick Mahomes would be able to replicate this year after year or his best season would be a season that he had like in the middle of his run. But look, his best season by far was his rookie year. Hold on, where is it? Okay, here we go. Hit 5,000 yards, hit 50 touchdowns, 12 picks, a rating of 113. And then what happened next year? And again, he had the team success but I'm talking statistically. What happened the year after that? Touchdowns got cut in half. Then the next year he got to 38, 37, he's hovering around 5,000. They added the extra game along the way here. In 2022 he was awesome. Still, nine less touchdowns than he had and a rating of 105. And now the defenses are starting to catch on. My point is this, we need to stop with the I need to be first to say this guy sucks or this guy's amazing. It's the same for people who say Sam Darnold sucks. What do you think now? Won the Super Bowl, back-to-back 14 win seasons. Drake May is probably going to be a very good quarterback in this league for a long time. But my thesis, my take is this. Drake May, Caleb Williams, Jaden Daniels, do it again. Do it again and then we can have the discussion. But for the time being, I will not have any quarterback that had one great year in my top five unless you are shattering records like Patrick Mahomes was. Shatter them and then I will consider you putting you in my top five. But Jaden Daniels is not a top five quarterback after his rookie year. Caleb Williams is not a top five quarterback after this season that he had last year. Drake May is not a top five quarterback. Do it again and then we can have a discussion. And if people think like that, you're gonna be able to have the wiggle room to have specific takes. I don't know why that gets me so frustrated but we just live in a society of like, I gotta be the first to proclaim this. It's like, no you don't. And I'm gonna have that same energy when Mendoza does something good. If he has an awesome season this year and runs rookie of the year, that's awesome. Good for you. Do it again. You know what I want you to do again? Hit that like button. Shout out to my $5 and $10 patrons and YouTube members. All that stuff is linked in the description below. Make sure we're joining the Discord. Hit that like button, comment away, and please be sure to subscribe to stay up to date on all the charts. To you, I love you guys, and I'll see you next time.