Raiders Roster Facing MASSIVE QUESTIONS As The Trade Deadline Looms...

So look, as much as I would like to think that I know more than the multi-million dollar head coaches and coordinators and general managers about how to run the Raiders, that probably isn't the case, and that also means that it probably isn't the case for anybody that's watching these videos and commenting that we should all be doing something differently than what the team is doing. I think most people at this current juncture, I could be wrong, correct me if I'm wrong down in the comments, but most people want to see Fernando Mendoza play because they think the season is a lost cause. Now, I don't know if I'm there yet with the lost cause of it all. My angle at it is that I think Fernando Mendoza gives us the best chance to win because of his ability to scramble outside of the pocket and pick up first downs. And I don't think that Kirk Cousins' brain is elevating the team to a level that Mendoza can't elevate us to with his athleticism. However, maybe I disagree with the situation from Clint Kubiak. I completely understand why he decided to still go with Kirk Cousins in this game. We're going to get into all that. I also think I've kind of figured out, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure this out either, when Mendoza is going to play. We're going to watch the rest of Kubiak's pressure from yesterday that we didn't watch. And then trades are flying during the trade deadline. And I want to discuss exactly where I think the Raiders fit into the trade deadline maybe a couple weeks ago we thought they could be buyers are they going to be sellers I'm not entirely sure about that I don't know if there's that many people to sell at this point maybe one or two including the quarterback but I do believe there is a young player out there that the Raiders should take a stab at and bring in and develop it's really crazy how the confidence that you have in your football team can switch on a dime because if you told me as I checked the Kalshi markets here that I'm seriously considering taking the Jets in this game. A couple weeks ago, after coming off a back-to-back, really good losses against the Chiefs, losing by three, and then against the Bills, losing by three. I would say you're crazy, but now after losing to the Rams in the way in which we did, and Clint Kubiak maybe hinting at the possibility of Fernando Mendoza, I don't know if that gives me more or less confidence in this game. I can't tell you the last time that we won a game in New York. We have success against the Jets at home, but that 10 a.m. body clock, West Coast to East Coast travel, I don't love it. I don't love it right now. If you purchase the no contract on Kalshi and you throw 25 on there, you win. If they don't win, you win 48-30. Interesting, interesting. I will say this. If you are interested in checking out Kalshi, use code ALLABOARD to instantly get 25. when you trade 25 and the reason why Kalshi is so unique and better in my opinion than your typical sports book is because you're not betting against the house like you are when you use a traditional sports book you are purchasing yes or no contracts peer-to-peer trading where we set the market on anything you can think of movies tv politics media if you want to purchase those contracts Kalshi has it okay so we have the presser reaction here why the heck are my notes there okay we have The presser reaction here, we're not going to watch the holding right now, but I do want to play the clip that he said about Kirk Cousins. Kirk Cousins, excuse me. I want to start with, you know, I want to let you guys know that Kirk is our starting quarterback. There is no controversy there. He's playing at a very high level, and he's got to continue to do that for us to win, and we've got to keep helping all the areas around him. So I'm excited for him to go play here against the Jets, and I'll take any of your questions. So, look, maybe it's the emotional part of my brain that wants to see Kirk Cousins out there, right? Does he really give us the best chance to win? Or sorry, for Mendoza's out there, does Mendoza really give us the best chance to win over Kirk Cousins? I think there's an argument to be made either way. Do you risk putting Mendoza out there too early? The Raiders are in a tough spot with this thing because Kirk Cousins still leads the league in touchdowns and yes we've lost four straight games but you could look at the Chiefs game and at the Bills game and think he played exceptional in those games he gave us the best chance to win and we came up a little bit short at the end when we couldn't make a stop or we couldn't get off the field on third down or we couldn't you know convert on a third and long or something like that Kirk Cousins and this is what I've been saying like if you play Mendoza it's not like Kirk Cousins is getting is getting benched. Kirk Cousins has played pretty well this year. Kirk Cousins is what, the fifth or sixth issue with this team not being able to win? And we all know what those issues are, but there's an article on SI that talks about, Yahoo Sports by SI, Jared Feinberg, talks about three big issues the Raiders may not be able to solve this season. I skimmed through this, spoiler alert, none of them are Kirk Cousins, because Kirk Cousins hasn't been the issue. The Las Vegas Raiders have lost four consecutive games after starting the year 3-0. Two of the Raiders' losses have come by three points, while two of them have lost by 14 or more points, including their most recent game against the Rams. The biggest difference in the most recent game, in these most recent games, is that the team has remained competitive and is fighting to win instead of lacking so much talent that it cannot come close in past years. However, the Raiders are in a tough spot, trying to stay disciplined in terms of the team's rebuild while knowing they are a win away from being four and four coming into this game with the jets too and staying in the thick of the wild card race in the afc some issues they face uh some of the issues they face though may not be resolved during this season three areas we need to improve this offseason and by the way this is why when people are like go get a wide receiver go get another disc they'll go get another that you can't you cannot solve all your problems in one offseason it's just not it's just not possible maybe we didn't solve as many as we initially thought we the one thing i thought that would be better than it is is the run game everything else the defense has been not good but competitive the offense has been massively improved and upgraded and the pass protection has been better too like that stuff is true we're just coming up a little short because we're at a bit of a talent deficit um the defensive struggles again this isn't Kirk Cousins's fault the Raiders have a mixture of youth and veterans who are working together well but there is a lack of difference makers at key spots, such as defensive tackle. I mean, Tonka was really good since he's come back. And then number two, edge rusher. I think Las Vegas and defensive coordinator Rob Leonard are rolling with the punches at cornerback and safety with rookie Hezekiah Masis and Treyan Stukes, both of whom have shown immense flashes, but also had rough moments. That's going to happen. Talonique Hemingway is the Raiders' best defensive tackle, but after that, it is bleak. Max Crosby is still searching for a quality pass rusher opposite him, with Malcolm Koon and Quade Pay failing to meet expectations at the moment. Again, I don't think the Las Vegas Raiders will make a move here to fix some of these issues, they may wait until March or April to address the defensive loss yeah, in terms of getting somebody at the trade deadline, I don't think we're going to trade for any defensive players a problem at guard JPJ and Caleb Rogers have been going back and forth at the right guard spot for much of the season but it's becoming clear they are not the answer at the spot it may be worth a shot to give Trey Zune some opportunities here, hold that thought until we get to the press conference but there is another area the Raiders may have to let play out for the season or for the offseason, excuse me Power Johnson and Rogers could be potential trade assets at the deadline from my perspective though Rogers is unlikely as a second year player Power Johnson provides more of that which would give the Raiders more ammo for next year's or this year's or next year's draft and then the run game 74.7 yards per game the second worst rushing offense in the league behind Green Bay wow 60 yikes running back Ash and Genti has been both hurt and inconsistent as a runner while Mike Washington has flashed some runs uh but runs into the same issue the offensive line specifically the Does that sound like a team that's ready for a rookie quarterback? Now, I know plenty, the majority of rookie quarterbacks have come in and played on teams that are way worse than us and have had levels of success like lots of levels of success but i feel like there's a really obvious spot that Fernando Mendoza is going to play in because here's the thing i i right now i'm not predicting one way or another us to beat the jets and i think we should beat them but i you know the raiders do these things where they lose silly games like this let's just pretend that we win this game okay that we're four and four if you put mendoza in here. We win the game are riding high. The next four games, three of which are on the road, defensively, it's about as hard as you get. The 49ers, which has now been flexed to 445 or 425 from the early window to there. The Seahawks, you just saw what they did to Patrick Mahomes. The Denver Broncos, great defense, and the Cleveland Browns. That's on the road in November. That's as hard as a stretch gets. This schedule is impossible for a third place team. I mean, it just says or for a fourth place team i was thinking third place team because the chiefs are third place because we have the fourth place good so if you're four and four and then you find a way to win one of these next four games and you're you're five and four five and five it's five and six five and seven five and eight five and eight ish right does that make sense no no no five and seven it'll be five and seven seasons essentially probably over and then here's your bye week the 29th to the 13th. Do you continue to go with Kirk Cousins to hope you get on a roll here or is this the time you finally start Fernando Mendoza because you've got it a little bit easier. The Chargers are the worst team in the league according to the records. Only winless team. Denver Broncos now you have them at home. Titans at home. Cardinals away. Chiefs when they might not be playing for something. That's a nice little five game window for Fernando Mendoza to finally get in there and do his thing. Now, if you somehow split these games with Kirk Cousins and you're 6-6, then you probably ride it out. Even if you win one of these games and you're 5-7 and you're still in the wildcard mix, then maybe you ride it out for one more game with Kirk, but I think this is probably the spot where he's going to play. You're going to see him do some good things and some bad things in your last five games. I think Kubiak has said as much. I think he's going to say in the press conference again, when we watch it here, Mendoza is going to play. It's just, it's, it's more a matter of if, it's more a matter of if. So I need your comments down below as to when you think he is going to play, because right now, to me, if it's not going to be this week, they're not going to put him in one of the next four weeks, especially on the road against a team like the 49ers or the Broncos. To me, it feels like the bye week. So yeah, let's get into this presser. We just watched the very beginning of it. And where is it? It's gone. Nope. It's right here. We're good. Don't need this. Goodbye. Yes. Well, we've got to play a better team football. It starts with stopping the run. It starts with running the ball. Those two things. John Spide has talked about this is an overnight rebuild. The last four points showed the gap that still needs to be made up. Yeah, you know, I think from our perspective as players and coaches, that's not something that's on our mind. On our mind is winning the next game. And we've played very talented teams. Yeah, Spidey Tech's job is to plan for the now and the future. Kubiak's team is not to really plan for the future. Or Kubiak's job is not to plan for the future. Teams and playing much more competitive games than that, being the Chiefs and the Bills. And so, you know, yesterday when you start the game that slow, you put yourself in position to be behind that much, you know, you don't give yourself a chance to win. What will go into your decision when you do turn to Fernando as your starter? Yeah, you know, eventually Fernando is going to play football. We have a plan, you know, we have a timeline for that. You know, Kirk's playing really well, and we're in the hunt. And, you know, it's really important that we keep playing really well behind him and continue to develop Fernando. See, they clearly think that there's still a big gap because he's saying we're in the hunt, so we want to keep playing Kirk Cousins. To me, I'm like, we're in the hunt. We need to play the quarterback that I think gives us a different edge. But they clearly think there's still a big gap. Fernando's going to play at some point. Okay, it's not going to be this week. Clint, just going off of that, I remember during the summer when you talked about making the quarterback decision, it was going to be player-led. He was going to let the team decide as a whole. Will that still be the best opportunity to win games? It's very clear you guys didn't lose that game because of one player. I'm not insinuating that. But when you look at your guard play, will there be any consideration for Trey Zun to get some reps at guard or Bryce Cable do this week something to look for a jump start there? Yes. I mean, I do love his candid answers. I mean, look, that's actually a good transition to stop right there for a second and go to the trade deadline rumors, because I don't know if you guys saw, but Quinton Nelson has been traded to the Seahawks for a third this year and a fifth next year. Now, I would have loved to have done this, but to me, it's like, does it really, if we have Quinton Nelson, do we beat the Bills and the Chiefs? I mean, maybe he's that good, but a third and a fifth for a guard that's in his 30s, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong on that. And he's maybe the best guard ever. I just don't think the Raiders and Spytek right now see us as buyers. However, Schefter said he expects multiple, I think he said double-digit deals before the trade deadline. And will we be in the mix with that? I don't think we're going to sell anybody besides JPJ maybe, maybe a Colton Miller, although I don't think that would be great for the offensive line at this point. I think they're going to keep Max. I think they're going to keep all their other veterans i do think the only thing to keep an eye on is does clint kubiak think he can resurrect brian thomas jr from the dead because he has shown an ability to be able to work with high level talent trey tucker on pace for 1100 yards and nine touchdowns brock bowers having an incredible year michael mayer having an incredible year i'm thinking about the past game Ashen Genti has as many receiving yards as he does running yards he's not going to get to a thousand yards rushing unless he really picks it up these last few weeks um but he's gonna have definitely a thousand scrimmage yards he might have more receiving yards than than rushing yards and i think brian thomas jr is somebody to float out there if quentin nelson and Marvin Harrison are going for a second and a third Brian Thomas you can probably get for a second or a third I prefer a third obviously if you have to do a third and a six to get Brian Thomas Jr I would do it in a heartbeat if you can do a third and Jalen Haylor I would do it in a heartbeat because nobody else is making an impact now apparently Jack Beshmay return to practice soon here and they have until Wednesday to decide if Dante is going to be active they're being super weird about that so maybe that means that he is and they're going to unleash him he's going to be some secret weapon but for the time being all we have to do is go off of what we have and right now the wide receiver room is thin especially with the injuries to Jack and to Dante excuse me quick little video here just wanted to hop on here and talk about all the stuff that happened yesterday after i made my they're definitely going to start Mendoza video and then he comes out five minutes after i upload it or before i upload it and says actually we're not doing it so i had to rework the title of the video shout out to my five and ten dollar patrons and YouTube members if you want to become one of these beautiful people hit the link down in the description below or click the big join button join the Discord which is completely free hit that like button comment away and please be sure to subscribe to us for after all no charges you i love you guys