RAIDER NATION FREE AGENCY BREAKDOWN

Summary

In this episode, the hosts discuss the Raiders' first day of free agency, focusing on the acquisition of Gino Smith and the losses on the defensive side. They analyze the implications of these moves, the financial strategy behind them, and the overall direction of the team. The conversation highlights the mixed feelings among fans regarding the team's offseason decisions and the potential for future success.

Takeaways

Gino Smith is seen as a positive addition to the Raiders.
The team has lost key defensive players, raising concerns.
Financial strategy is shifting towards smarter spending.
The importance of building through the draft is emphasized.
Fans are divided on the effectiveness of recent moves.
The defense is perceived to be weaker after recent losses.
Gino Smith's performance in Seattle is a hopeful sign.
The team is focusing on long-term success rather than short-term gains.
There is a need for continuity in the linebacker position.
The hosts encourage fan engagement and feedback on the team's direction.

Sound Bites

"Gino Smith, let's roll!"
"We've lost Robert Spillane now."
"I think we're playing it smart."
"You're muted, Will."

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Free Agency and Raider Nation's Outlook
05:13 Gino Smith: A New Era for the Raiders
09:59 Defensive Changes and Concerns
15:01 Financial Strategy and Team Building Philosophy
20:05 Final Thoughts and Future Prospects

Transcript

Raider Wil (00:02.071)
And today on today's episode we will answer what is going on with Raider Nation after the first day of free agency baby on the Silver and Black Radio podcast. I'm your host Raider Will and I got my misfit crew here today. I got my boy representing TBH Military Chapter. James, let him know baby.

James (TBH Military Chapter) (00:30.67)
Yeah, you can follow us on Instagram at TBH underscore military underscore chapter.

Raider Wil (00:37.755)
Yo, I got my boy representing TBH SATURN! LADYCHAVEZ916 boy, Steven! Let him know baby where we can find ya!

Raiderchavez 916 (00:54.413)
Geno Smith, let's roll! We got this!

Raider Wil (00:57.587)
Yo, if you guys want to roll with TBH SAC town make sure you guys go down to Shedada against Citrus Heights SAC town Love my boy Steven. Yo, we got our boy man representing TBH West Co RVP Maddie B. Let them know baby where they can find us

Raiderchavez 916 (00:58.895)
Hehehehehe

Matty B (01:25.717)
What's up, baby? You can find us on every platform there is, man. TBH West in Colorado, baby.

Raider Wil (01:31.163)
Let's go. Yo, and I'm your host Raider Will and on today's episode we are gonna talk First day of free agency. We've had two days of tampering period now first day. I got my boy man on fire James take it away

James (TBH Military Chapter) (01:48.494)
Okay, so to start off free agency Originally, I felt like we came out swinging We came out with Gino Smith. It wasn't the popular choice by from a lot of the fans I was a big fan of it because they wrote my man off but guess what? didn't write back. didn't write back and he's he's back and he's ready to start all over again I even went as far as making a mini hype video on my Instagram. You can see that for

I think Gino Smith is just an awesome addition. think that's clearly the best thing that's happened to us in free agency. Right. And then the rest of the day has happened. And what I mean by that is we've, we've lost Robert Spillane now we've lost Trayvon Maring. We've lost divine Diablo. yeah, it's just, it's been a, it's been a lot of losses on the defensive side of the ball.

Raider Wil (02:24.402)
Hope that, yeah.

James (TBH Military Chapter) (02:45.614)
We lost Nate Hobbs as well, even though Nate Hobbs is considered more of a special package player according to Mr. Will. Um, but in my opinion right now on the offensive side of the ball, I think we're winners. Unfortunately on the defensive side of ball, I think we're, I think we're losers. really think we're losing right now on the defensive side of ball. Um, we've picked up some, some guys, I mean, I just,

On the defense side of the ball, I've just me personally, I don't like the idea that landing Roberts is our linebacker one right now. And the best linebacker on our, on our team, not really feeling too warm and fuzzy about that. actually the past couple of days, ever since we got Gino Smith, I actually feel like instead of watching the free agency frenzy from the Raiders, I've actually been kind of watching the free agency snooze fast other Raiders right now. cause it just seems like we've been, we've been asleep all day. mean,

We haven't seen much happen, even from a low, from a, from a low paying sample standpoint. I know we picked up Eric Stokes. I understand he's got a lot of upside. know we picked up Jeremy Chen, Jeremy Chen on the defensive side of the ball was probably the only pickup that I was really like, kind of. Surprise that we were able to pick up. he's the one pickup that I did really admire that we got.

I saw that we've resigned Malcolm Coons.

Kind of feeling iffy about it. I mean, I'm happy it wasn't 20 million, but I think for the price we paid Malcolm Coons, we probably could have resigned, cave on chasing and maybe just maybe kept divine Diablo another year, at least just to keep some more linebacker continuity from the last year. not saying I think divine Diablo is a linebacker one material, cause clearly he's a linebacker too, right? Clearly he's a linebacker too, but at least

James (TBH Military Chapter) (04:45.23)
In my opinion, what he is someone that I feel like could, possibly lead that group as opposed to us having a brand new group out there. Um, and I think that kind of pretty much sums up a lot of it. Um, I just feel like on the defensive side of the ball, we're kind of, we're taking a step back. And I mean, I, I acknowledge that I know Pete Carroll is a late, more of a drafting defense kind of guy going very young. Um, I just think.

I just think as a Raiders fan, I'm kind of afraid of history repeating itself. Cause every, seems like every time we've gone very young on defense, it's never worked out. Um, so I mean, that's, that's just kind of where I'm at. mean, I would have much rather seen us go after someone the likes of like a Santi Samuel. Uh, you know, he's still floating around out there and I haven't, I haven't seen him go anywhere. So I think that that would be more of the pick that I would have gone for as opposed to Eric Stokes, but you know,

Raider Wil (05:31.442)
30 seconds.

James (TBH Military Chapter) (05:41.964)
We don't know what's going to happen with the Geno Smith restructure situation. you know, it's kind of, it's kind of up in the air. I just hoping that there could still be some viable names. They're still available for us here soon.

Raider Wil (05:55.847)
Alright brother, hey he got it all out at one time baby. Yo let's go to our boy Steven. Let us know your thoughts of what's happened so far in the Raiders offseason. How you feel and hey which way are the Raiders going brother?

Raiderchavez 916 (06:13.219)
So I agree with James with the Gino Smith. I'm excited about the deal. I'm not doing backflips. You know, he's not he's not a Patrick Mahomes or anything like that. I Gino Smith, I was excited when they did it. And then I spent the weekend just breaking down the numbers and looking at everything and seeing how the last three years with him have been. like, we have a solid ass star. This guy, this guy's been better than anything we've had.

even better than Carr, at least over the last three years. mean, in whole, Derrick Carr gave us a lot of years, but over the last three years, two Pro Bowls, last year threw for over 4,000 yards, 30 touchdowns. Interceptions were a little high, but he had one of the worst offensive lines in football. There's a lot of Raider fans that really hate this move.

I'm like, I don't think you guys understand what this guy's been doing. I don't think you guys have been paying attention. He has actually been putting up some numbers and playing solid and he put up really good numbers with Pete Carroll there. And now he's back with his head coach. So I'm excited about that. think we have a solid starter quarterback and we have a better line than Seattle does as well. We need some depth, but we definitely have a better offensive line than they do.

And where I'll push back a little bit on James is I think defensively. Now I did the last time I came on here, I did say it would be a huge disappointment and a loss in free agency if we lost Spillane. And that and we did, we lost Spillane. That hurts. That breaks my heart because he was a Raider and I would have loved to see him finish his career a Raider. But

And he got the bag over in New England and and I kind of see what the Raiders are doing. They're not going to give those massive contracts like we used to do the players that aren't making the Pro Bowl and things like that. You Merrick got a lot of money. Splane got a lot of money. Those are good players that I'd love to have on our defense still, but they're getting paid like Pro Bowlers and none of them have ever have made the Pro Bowl. And. As far as.

Raiderchavez 916 (08:35.415)
talking about going younger with the draft, the teams that do that are the teams that are winning nowadays, are winning through the draft, not overpaying for free agency. But the players that we've put to replace these guys are a little older. So we're not having exactly gotten younger. Yes, will they draft some people? Absolutely. But Landon Roberts has been in league a while, and he's really, to me, just as good as Spillane.

Harder hitter, Spillane's just younger. Roberts has some miles on him. And I really like Chin. Chin's not, he doesn't play the same position as Moray. He's more of a, he'll come down in the box and hit you hard. He's not a free safety. But Stokes, former first round pick, we'll see what he does. But I'm excited for what they're doing. It hurts me to see Spillane go, but.

I think they're being smart with their money, not going over spending on these free agents, because we've in the past done that for years. it just, the last time it paid off was when they did, when we had Rich Gannon and Tim Brown and Jerry Rice and guys like that. Since then, overpaying for all these guys, like when we did Warren Sapp and everybody, it didn't do anything for us. You got to build through the draft nowadays. That's my opinion.

Raider Wil (09:59.443)
30 seconds brother. you're done? Alright brother. Yo Matty B! Hit us with your thoughts my brother.

Raiderchavez 916 (10:01.788)
I think I'm done.

Matty B (10:08.035)
And I fuck I mean Steven pretty much hit it right where I wanted to say it, you know, like I believe that you got better like on offense. I believe Geno Smith was a great addition. I agree with both you guys on that. I mean, who's that put us as a or put AOC? Geno Smith and who Bradley right now, I guess, is who would be our quarterbacks. I think Bradley's got some up and I think

People that can bring that out in him and make him look better, it'd be Pete Carroll and his crew. I think all these quarterbacks can get better under Pete Carroll. So I liked that addition of that quarterback. I do like the Kappa signing. Yeah, did he have a, he had a bad year last year and I'm not gonna beat around the bush. It was horrible. You know, it one of the worst years for a guard, especially after being one of the top.

But I think he still got some spunk left in him. I think if he was hurt and wasn't up to par, I don't think we would have signed him. So I think that was going to be a good move that solidifies our line. That puts JPJ, think, back at center, par on the right guard. That gives us glaze at right tackle and then Colt Miller at left. So I think that solidifies our offensive line pretty good.

Think that we are being a little. What do you call it? Greedy with our money this year and I'm not I'm not opposed to it. I think that we're kind of playing it smart, because you know, like I was I was hearing a couple guys. The other day they were talking about it and they were saying, you know, you can you could have all the money in the world when it comes to free agency and you could sign all these big contract to players and you could give all these big name players big contractors to sign them to your team because that's who the people want, right?

But a lot of the time these guys don't work out on those teams and they end up on two or three different teams. mean, look at Devontae Adams right now. You know, he's on his third team in 12 months. You know, so I mean, you give these guys big play money and a lot of these guys don't work out in those situations. So they end up getting traded or they bounce around for the next two or three years and then they fall off. You know, so I think it's smart the way we're spending our money. I think Pete Carroll did the same thing in Seattle too.

Matty B (12:33.921)
You know, when people were due for big paydays, certain people got it and certain people walked, you know, or certain people got traded. So I think we're playing it smart. I like it. Our defense is definitely improved in my book. I think we've improved. lost a couple of players, but like you said, they were they got overpaid in a lot of these places. And are they good players yet? Do they have a lot of potential and it could be, you know, get paid more later on down the road? Yeah, but.

If we're spinning the way we're spinning right now, it makes no sense to go out and get these players who likes Blaine is a great run stopper, but in coverage, he's a liability. You look at Elden Landon's, he's a pretty good coverage back, but he kind of lacks in the run game. So, I mean, you kind of tit for tat on those linebackers there. So we'll see how that kind of works. We do have some young guys, Eichenberg and Masterson.

So we'll see how they work out. I think we could still address the linebacker position, but I don't think we need to go out and get a huge named player to do that. Look at Spillane when we picked him, he wasn't a big player. So, you know, I think we're spinning it right. Everything looks pretty good. And I'm just going to keep going with the flow on it and see what we do from there and then get younger in the draft. Everybody has to get younger.

Raider Wil (13:42.93)
30 seconds.

Raider Wil (13:58.577)
Yo, I absolutely, I can agree with a lot of what everybody said here. Gino Smith, you address the quarterback position and move one? I'd be like, hey, and we all know that has been the top priority question for the Raiders. Who's going to play quarterback? Who's going to be our guy that's going to lead us into the playoff or lead us into the promised land?

carols t

We all said, hey, we can't have a pocket guy. We can't have a guy that's not going to be sitting in the, or sitting back there and just picking people apart. We also said, hey, having a rookie and just leading off with the rookie is going to be a hard transition to win right now. Raider Nation is impatient. Raider Nation wants moves today.

They want you to sign the biggest baddest dude at every position. And let's just be real. Financially, not possible. So with Gino being addressed initially with the third round pick that we got for Devontae Adams who is no longer on the Jets.

I feel like we got a steal at that spot. We still got all our draft picks, the original draft picks we had, plus, you know, we got now a quarterback that can transition our team. Then we have a guy that's a veteran.

Raider Wil (15:49.767)
We have to look at all those things. So we say, all right, let them transition. Let them go into their things. Now, when you talk about adding defensive talent, we added a guy that was in the first round in Eric Stokes. He's a first round draft pick at minimal cost. We added a linebacker in Ellsworth at $3 million.

that if you look at his PFF scores are very comparable to Spillane. Spillane got $37.5 million.

Raider Wil (16:34.652)
This is his guaranteed money was 16 mil. When we got Gino Smith, we understood that we had to restructure the contract. We understood that he wants more money. Everybody says, yeah, well, the Seahawks are going to carry 31 million.

Well, they carry 31 million, but what about the rest? What about the 16 million plus that he's gonna ask for? Are they gonna carry that too?

No! We have to carry that and then we have to look at the longevity of our team. We can't sit here and say, hey, we're gonna spend all our money. First of all, we just got done paying max.

So his contract is locked up. There's 31 mil right there. You talk about Gino, that's another 20 mil you gotta put on top. We had 106 mil, now you only got 56.

James (TBH Military Chapter) (17:41.518)
you

Raider Wil (17:42.77)
You signed, you signed 10 for what? What was it, 11 mil?

Matty B (17:49.126)
I believe so.

Raider Wil (17:49.359)
So that so I don't remember two years night. Okay, two years 19. He's already at nine mil

Raiderchavez 916 (17:49.386)
Yeah, I don't remember the number.

Matty B (17:52.104)
find out.

James (TBH Military Chapter) (17:52.216)
Two years, 19. Two years, 19.

Raider Wil (17:59.773)
So your pocket goes down, your money keeps going down, man. mean, like, eventually, we gotta say, it's just like you guys said, we gotta build with key players and not just spend our money like crazy. It's being financially responsible and doing the right thing for the team. And that's what P, Karo, and Spytek are doing. Fellas, James, you've been waiting.

Rebuttal thoughts concern. Hey first of all what I want you to do if you're a listener I want you to comment I want you to let me know if you agree with James with me With our boy Steven with Maddie B. Let us know engage with us Let us know what you guys are thinking about the Raiders and What they're doing James you heard all the arguments Hit us with it, baby. We got two we got a minute and a half left fellas

open thoughts, concerns, what are we going to do next? Where are we going? James, go ahead.

James (TBH Military Chapter) (18:59.726)
I agree with everyone what they're saying. I mean the Raiders trying to play safe trying to save money, right? But in my opinion Sometimes safe is just too safe. It's just not to me and in this instance, I just I just don't think it's enough to really value Our defense. I think our defense was heading towards a top 15 top 10 defense. I think I look at today I'm looking I'm looking at us for more over 20

point of view right now. That's just my personal opinion. mean, it could be wrong, but considering the fact that we still got Jack Jones out playing corner and he's basically our corner one right now, besides Jacory and Bennett, I mean, I'm not really having a warm and fuzzy considering Spillane left, Morrig left, and we're missing a ton of people. I'm not really getting a warm and fuzzy about our defense. But the good thing is Gino's here, so maybe we can win in a shootout.

Matty B (20:05.339)
Thank

Raiderchavez 916 (20:06.566)
You're muted, Will.

Raider Wil (20:07.824)
Yeah, no my mic wasn't working. Matty B, go ahead.

Raider Wil (20:14.0)
Maddie, can you hear me? Can you guys not hear me?

Raiderchavez 916 (20:16.816)
You're muted.

James (TBH Military Chapter) (20:20.823)
I hear you.

Raider Wil (20:22.406)
You can hear me now?

Raiderchavez 916 (20:23.046)
I don't hear. This show's muted on my screen.

Raider Wil (20:30.419)
I don't know.