Week 1 comes to a close with a meeting of AFC West rivals as the Denver Broncos face the Oakland Raiders in what will be the final Monday Night Football game in Oakland–Raiders are moving to Las Vegas next season.
Unless you were hiding under a rock, with no WiFi reception, the Oakland Raiders offseason (headlined by the Antonio Brown drama) was heard and seen by pretty much everyone. The team enters Week 1 with more question marks then it had when their season ended last year.
Jon Gruden is in year two of his 10-year deal and while it is unlikely that the Raiders let him go any time soon, he surely wants to turn things around from what the team put on display a season ago. In back-to-back years, Oakland has seen its best player leave the team before the season even started.
The head coach does still have Derek Carr on the roster and with some experience in Gruden’s offense, the hope is that Carr will be able to replicate his near MVP season that was derailed by injury in December of 2016.
Helping Carr and the offense find their groove sans AB is first-round pick (one of three Oakland had in the 2019 NFL Draft) is running back Josh Jacobs. Jacobs was a three-star recruit coming out of high school and waited his turn at Alabama until he exploded as an every-down back as a Junior.
Given the pass rush that the Broncos are packing with Von Miller and Bradley Chubb on either side of the ball, quick drop off passes and screens to Jacobs should be a heavy part of the game plan tonight. New Denver head coach, Vic Fangio should be ready for that. He’s one year removed from revamping the Chicago Bears defense back into their “Monsters of the Midway” past. He was brought up to the Mile High city to produce similar results. Having Chubb and Miller is a great starting point.
On offense, the team will be led by Joe Flacco who comes over from the Baltimore Ravens after losing his job to Lamar Jackson. He will be working with Royce Freeman and Phillip Lindsay in the backfield. Lindsay is coming off a year that saw him become the first undrafted rookie to make a Pro Bowl in his first NFL season. The two should operate more in a committee style to keep both fresh for the entire season.
Outside, Emmanuel Sanders is returning from a torn Achilles but still looks like a reliable option. Courtland Sutton is looking to improve upon his rookie year and cement himself as the team’s number one target. Flacco has targeted his tight ends often in his career and Denver used their first-round pick in 2019 on former Iowa tight end Noah Fant–his teammate T.J. Hockenson just set a record with 134 receiving yards in his NFL debut.
The Raiders will be relying on their other two 2019 first-round draft choices to make an impact, defensive end Clelin Ferrell and safety Jonathan Abrams. Abrams was a favorite of the camera during Oakland’s Hard Knocks stint during training camp and preseason. He talked a big game and there’s no better stage to back that up than on Monday Night Football.
If the defense can find themselves this year than there’s hope for the Raiders to make something out of what is already a crazy season. If not, the long year will only grow longer.
As the nightcap, this game might not be as entertaining as the first game of tonight’s double-header but rest assured that these two heated rivals will be locked into a battle to end Week 1.
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