The Oakland Raiders have franchised 30-year old DE Richard Seymour guaranteeing him $12,389,000 bucks for the 2010 season.  Seymour played in all 16 games for the Raiders last season and he made 47 tackles, 4 tackles for a loss, he had 4 sacks, forced a fumble and he defensed 3 passes.  Seymour has now played in 127 games in his NFL career and he has 404 tackles, 43 sacks, 4 forced fumbles, 2 interceptions and he has defensed 29 passes.  This was a good move for the Raiders as Seymour is still a good football player.

The Raiders need to put the stopwatches away and start drafting football players.  Who cares if a guy can run a 4.2 40 if he can’t catch the ball or make a tackle?  In the first round (#7 overall) the Raiders took WR Darrius Heyward-Bey out of Maryland.  He was the fastest player timed in the 40 in the entire draft.  Too bad he can’t catch a pass.  Heyward-Bey played in 11 games for the Raiders last season and he caught 9 passes for 124 yards (13.8 avg) with 1 TD grab and he also carried the ball 2 times for 19 yards (9.5 ypc).  In the second round (#47 overall) the Raiders selected another speedster in safety Michael Mitchell out of Ohio.  Draft experts considered him to be a huge reach for the Raiders.  He played in all 16 games for the Raiders last season and he finished up with 16 tackles and 1.5 sacks.  DE Matt Shaughnessy (4th round, #124 overall) out of Wisconsin was a good pick for the Raiders as he has a nice upside.  He played in all 16 games for the Raiders last season and he finished up with 29 tackles, 5 tackles for a loss and 4 sacks.  WR Louis Murphy (4th round, #124 overall) out of Florida is another speed demon but he can actually catch the ball.  He played in 16 games for the Raiders last season and he caught 34 passes for 521 yards (15.3 avg) with 4 TD grabs.  He also carried the ball 6 times for 31 yards (5.2 ypc) and he made 3 tackles.  Murphy is the guy that caught the biggest pass of the year for the Raiders late in the 4th quarter at Pittsburgh that gave the team a huge road win.  DE Slade Norris (4th round, #126 overall) out of Oregon State played in 4 games for the Raiders last season and he made 2 tackles.  DE Stryker Sulak (6th round, #199 overall) out of Missouri was cut before the season started.  TE Brandon Myers (6th round, #202 overall) out of Iowa played in 11 games for the Raiders as a rookie catching 4 passes for 19 yards (4.8 avg).  He also had 6 tackles and forced a fumble for the Raiders as a rookie.

GRADE FOR 2009:  C-

GRADE FOR THE FUTURE:  C