For the most part, the national media has loved the Raiders’ moves this offseason. The trade for Davante Adams and the signing of Chandler Jones has put them in the playoff conversation once again. But not everyone is convinced the Raiders got better this year.
In a recent article by Bill Barnwell of ESPN, he wrote about every team’s offseason moves and ranked them from 32 to 1. He did not love the moves the Raiders made and gave them the fifth-worst offseason grade in the NFL.
Here is a snippet of why Barnwell is down on the offseason for the Raiders:
“I wrote at length about the Adams trade when it happened. He is a great player, but the combination of his aging curve, the Raiders’ needs elsewhere on the roster, the move away from Aaron Rodgers and the surplus-value in trading two valuable picks to the Packers gives me pause.
It’s difficult to imagine the guy who used to manage McDaniels and Ziegler making this same deal, and he’s pretty good at managing rosters.”
Barnwell wanted to see the Raiders use their first-round pick on a receiver, even if that meant trading their first two selections for someone like Chris Olave or Jameson Williams. It’s clear he believes Adams is a product of Aaron Rodgers more than anything else.
Barnwell didn’t like the Chandler Jones signing either as he wrote that there isn’t a big difference between him and Yannick Ngakoue, especially considering the salaries.
The Raiders are certainly hoping that the additions of their two All-Pro players will be enough to get them back into the playoffs this year. Time will tell if the Raiders had a good offseason or not. But at the very least, they seemed to have a plan and they executed it well.