Well, here we are - the Clown Car is retroactive to last week, and let's hope for something better today. Honestly, I'm kinda at a loss for words. How do I even process or talk about what's going on with this organization. It's a fail of astonishing proportions that has become an embarrassment for a relatively storied coach, and yet another blow to the sinking reputation of Mark Davis. It's sad to see this team with systemic issues that seem to only get worse. At this point just looking for the slightest hint of progress. GO RAIDERS! 

Browns Gameday Thread

Friends, belated thanks for your well wishes during my travels, I was on the run but it didn't go unnoticed.

I'm back in the saddle but nothing seems to have changed, as this Browns game is off to a nightmare Clown Car start in the first quarter. 

Still plenty of time, but it's not looking good. We shall see. GO RAIDERS!  

Cowboys Gamenight Thread

Friends I’m traveling in foreign time zone so gonna keep it short, thanks for keeping the lights on and Go Raiders!

Broncos Gamenight Thread

Just three years ago, the Broncos and Raiders were in very similar straits. One team has completely turned itself around, while the other seems to now be in even worse shape. Why have their paths been so divergent, when their opportunities were fairly equal--and in fact the Broncos had to overcome the biggest dead salary cap hit in NFL history. 

Something to ponder tonight. GO RAIDERS!  

Jaguars Gameday Thread

Well, here we are at midseason and I gotta lower the bar once again on another lost campaign.

Simply put: don't make me run out the Clown Car again, Raiders.

GO RAIDERS! 

Chiefs Postmortem Thread

Sorry I glitched out over the weekend. 

How's everyone coping after we ran just 30 offensive plays and got absolutely worked by the Chiefs to hit rock bottom on the way to another lost season?

What is going on? How do we find ourselves here AGAIN? 

All of these years, all of these high draft picks and trades, all of these new GM and coach regimes, and THIS is where we are at. There's one common thread and I wonder what he thinks when he wakes up on Monday mornings.  

 

Titans Gameday Thread

Y'all know what time it is...

 

GO RAIDERS. 

 

Colts Gameday Thread

Well, here we are AGAIN. Waiting for something good to happen, for hope, for signs of progress. Trying not to watch a season get away from us yet again before it's really even started. What else can I say? GO RAIDERS. 

The Raiders Bug?

I ask this in all seriousness: Is there a Raiders "contagion" or "infection" that maybe explains the past 20 years? 

How can we allegedly significantly upgrade at GM, head coach, QB and RB (and special advisor in Brady) this year plus Bowers and still look the same as the McDummy regime, Pierce regime, and on and on. 

Like, it's not only the same RESULTS, but also the same WAY of losing. I mean, how many TIMES have you seen a dumb close loss just like this one against the Bears, or a no-show just like we saw against the Commanders and their backup QB.  

It's uncanny and mind boggling. These are like clones of clones of clones of Raiders games past. Do new GM, coach and player regimes come in and catch a sort of Raiders bug?  

Bears Gameday Thread

Getting this one going early for two reasons: I'm gonna be on the run this weekend, and we need to wash the taste of last weekend out of our mouths.

Now THIS match, this one feels sort of a like a must win, right?

GO RAIDERS! 

Commanders Gameday Thread

This feels like a good 'measuring stick' game for week three. 

The Commanders have the same record at 1-1. They seemed to have lost a bit off last year's fastball, while the Raiders are presumably on the ascent from last season.  

The offense needs to step up after Monday's debacle. Geno isn't the type of QB who can transcend poor protection. All the Bowers and Jeantys and Genos aren't going to help much if you can't generate time and lanes on the line.  

The difference between 1-2 and 2-1 feels like a gulf for some reason.  So let's see them put it together and steal one on the road and get some momentum going. 

GO RAIDERS! 

Chargers Gamenight Thread

I'm not gonna say that this is a must-win game, not even close.

But I do think it will be a bit of a litmus test. 

The Chiefs are vulnerable right now, creating a bit of a vacuum in the AFC West, which we haven't had for quite a while. Meanwhile, the Chargers and Broncos appear to be on the upswing compared to recent years.  

So the question is: are the Raiders now an upwardly mobile franchise in the AFC West that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the class of the division?

Or are we simply an improving team but stuck in the midlands for a while?

Tonight could help us start to answer those questions.

GO RAIDERS! 

Patriots Gameday Thread

For opening day, I feel oddly unmoved. 

How many years have we been right here, with all of the preseason hype and another new regime and cries of "this time it's different" followed by all of us saying "prove it" followed by more of the same. 

I'm not sure how much the Raiders are going to prove this year, but please, please, the only thing I ask for is DIFFERENT. This is my 21st season at Raider Take. Please let this one be an actual beginning to something different and promising rather than just another beginning to a predictable end. 

GO RAIDERS! 

Bye, Bye Amari

Just as Jakobi Myers was cheerfully discussing his discontent with reporters, this news dropped: Amari Cooper is retiring after signing with the Raiders last week. 

You can't make this stuff up. Discuss.  

2025 Season Kickoff Take

Welcome to the 2025 season my friends. If you're still here, you have my gratitude for helping me keep the lights on. I may be losing steam, but I'm still in the ring. 

Now on to business. If I told you that one week before the start of the regular season that the Raiders were dealing with a disgruntled #1 wide receiver; just lost their backup quarterback for two months; and today added two castoffs from the Cleveland Browns, you might have thought it was 2023, or 2020, or 2015, or 2012, or 2008. 

But no, it's 2025, and time is officially a flat circle.

However...that's not the whole story. There's hope in the air. An electrifying top draft pick. The league's best young TE back for a sophomore campaign. The best QB since Carr (and hopefully better). And the most grownup coach in a long time.  

Help me out here. Where do we stand, what's your take, and how will this play out? Let's get the conversation started. GO RAIDERS!!!

Draft Night Thread

I don't really like Tom Brady, and I regret that a Patriot / TV Announcer has become a part owner of the Raiders. It feels corporate and establishmentarian--two things that the Raiders were born to resist under Al Davis. 

Brady also comes across to me as a bit of an attention whore and try-hard. Why would someone in his position otherwise acquiesce to that disgraceful Tom Brady Roast last year?

All that said, I think Tom Brady is a champion, a winner and a competitor, and he is very smart. These things sort of offset my misgivings about him, because if it's one thing that the Raiders have been lacking under Mark Davis, it's smarts.

We can't ignore the Tom Brady effect now, because Mark Davis won't let us: "Bringing in Tom Brady was bringing in somebody on the football side that I had been lacking having here in the organization."

So that brings us to tonight's draft. Of course, Spytek and Carroll will be running the show and they are no slouches--but Brady is no doubt lurking in the background, serving perhaps as a 'kill switch' if Davis starts running with scissors and ordering people to draft Shadeur if he falls to the sixth slot. 

Anyhow, those are my thoughts today. Once again I apologize for going dark for a period, this team hasn't done enough to counter the apathy that has crept up on me as we've flailed around under McDaniels and Pierce for the past three years. Thanks, Mark. 

But I'm now excited about what comes next. We finally have a head coach who's a grownup, the best QB since Carr and, yes, a smart and proven winner whispering in the owner's ear.

Who would you draft? What do we need to focus on? Bang it here. 

Welcome, Pete Carroll!

Finally, a GROWNUP and a PROVEN commodity at head coach. 

 I'm not saying Pete's going to be incredible and the Raiders are going to be instantly great, but at least we're finally in the ballpark and not flailing around wondering if Pierce is up to the task (nope), if McDaniels has gotten his s*** together (nope), if Gruden still has the old magic and isn't going to be cartoony (nope), etc.

This is just a simple, rock-solid, low-downside, possible high-upside choice of a stable coach who can shepherd the team through this transition time and out of the abyss and not look out of place or out of his depth in a division with Reid, Payton and Harbaugh. 

I'll take it. 

Raiders Fire Antonio Pierce

This was inevitable the moment he was hired. Sorry, but truth.

And while the Broncos were hiring Sean Payton and drafting Bo Nix, and the Chargers were pairing Jim Harbaugh with Justin Herbert, Mark Davis was performing his favorite pastime: rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Is Mark Davis FINALLY ready to get serious? We are already YEARS behind our division rivals. The only question now is how many. Davis needs to find a way to shorten that timeline as much as possible. 

To date, he hasn't demonstrated any capability of doing that. And so yet another waiting game unfolds.