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The Raiders have released 31-year old WR Javon Walker. Walker played in 3 games for the Raiders and he didn’t catch any passes. All Walker did last season was return 1 punt for 0 yards for the Raiders in 2009. Walker played in 11 games in his two years with the Raiders and he caught 15 passes for 196 yards (13.1 avg) with 1 TD grab. This is no loss for the Raiders as Walker has been a bust since signing with them two years ago.
The Raiders have released 34-year old DE Greg Ellis. Ellis played in 14 games for the Raiders last season and he made 29 tackles, 1 tackle for a loss, he had 7 sacks, forced 2 fumbles and he defensed 1 pass. Ellis was a decent player for the Raiders last season but his age probably was a huge factor in the decision to release him.
The Raiders have released 30-year old running back Justin Fargas. Fargas played in 12 games for the Raiders last season and he carried the ball 129 times for 491 yards (3.8 ypc) with 3 TD runs. He also caught 17 passes for 113 yards (6.6 avg) last season for the Raiders. Fargas played in 92 games for the Raiders in his career in which he carried the ball 827 times for 3,369 yards (4.1 ypc) with 10 TD runs and he also caught 77 passes for 523 yards (6.8 avg). The Raiders will gave all of Fargas’ carries to Darren McFadden and Michael Bush in 2010.
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 Oakland Raiders (5-11) looked like they might be upsetting the Baltimore Ravens (9-7) playoff chances, but Charlie Frye got hurt and the horrific JaMarcus Russel came in. Russel was the biggest reason for the Raiders poor record this season, and he was the reason they lost this game. After Frye had thrown for 180 yards and a touchdown on 18/25 passes, he was injured and that is when Russel came in and blew it for the Raiders. Down only one, Russel went on to throw an interception that led to an easy rushing touchdown for the Ravens. The Raiders were still in the game though, but Russel destroyed their chances when he lost a fumble at the Ravens 23-yard line.
The Raiders defense did a good job stopping the Ravens’ passing game. Ravens’ talented quarterback Joe Flacco was not much of a factor, finishing with 102 yards on 11/19 passes. The Raiders’ run-defense was a different story. They could not contain Ravens’ running back Willis McGahee. McGahee rushed for 3 touchdown and 167 yards on just 16 carries. One of his touchdowns was a 77-yard run in the second quarter. This was not a good end to the Raiders bad season, and the only question left is will Al Davis fire Tom Cable?