Michael Delgado: Hello Talon Marks, my name is Michael Delgado and today I will be talking to guys about a uh very interesting topic.

So I am myself am a Las Vegas Raiders fan and today I wanted to talk to you guys about… I would say somewhat of a downfall for the Las Vegas Raiders.

Now you may be thinking, “what kind of downfall? They haven’t really been good in recent years,” and to be honest you’re right but, to me, the team we just had recently last year was too talented to not make the playoffs.

You have a great wideout with Davante Adams arguably the best in the league, you have a great, two great pash rushers with Maxx Crosby and Chandler Jones.

Hunter Renfrow and Darren Waller, a really good quarterback in my opinion, Derek Carr, and a really good running back with Josh Jacobs.

And for this team to not make the playoffs frustrates me because I believe this downfall started when we hired Mike, excuse me, Josh McDaniels.

Now Josh McDaniels as we know he’s won Super Bowls but he was a long side with Bill Belichick, Bill Belichick is the greatest head coach in NFL history and he was an offensive coordinator.

Josh McDaniels, so he really hasn’t had any experience as a head coach other than when he went to the Denver Broncos and he quite literally ruined that team as well what he is doing with the Raiders is what he did with the Denver Broncos history is repeating itself.

Now when we first hired Josh McDaniels I wasn’t a big fan of it I was like maybe hey let’s keep Rich Bisacia, who was the interim head coach for Jon Gruden, after what happened with the email situation and all that nonsense that happened that year for the Raiders.

But I just thought maybe let’s just keep this guy because the players respect him and when the players respect the coach, it shows on the field and Josh McDaniels is not that guy for this franchise and I’ve been on board with this since the day we got him.

I only bit in on him because we ended up trading for Davante Adams and I thought maybe just maybe we have so much weapons on offense that this could be a really, really good team I’m talking like this team has the potential to go to the AFC championship game that’s how good this offense was.

As we all know, the 2022 Raiders were a complete embarrassment.

My expectations were completely shot down and there’s so many things that you could point the finger too there’s Derek Carr, you could point it at the defense, you could point it at anything you want but to me it all goes on Josh McDaniels.

We’ve had so many games this past season where we were up double-digits and we blew the lead; many times, many many times.

Week two against the Arizona Cardinals, we were up 17-0, we lose 20-23.

Kansas City Chiefs game, Monday night, we were up I believe 17-0 again we lose that game 29-30 and it was just a repeated cycle that kept going on I mean you just think to yourselfm how many times is this gonna happen?

Oh, I could name a few more against the Rams they were up 16-3 they lost that game, against the Pittsburgh Steelers, we were 10-0 all game they lose that game like it was a repeated cycle that kept going on.

Like people were quick to put the blame on Derek Carr because he is the quarterback of this team but to me, I felt Josh McDaniels purposely sabotaged him yes they gave him an extension of four years but when you really look at it, it wasn’t really an extension because in the contract it had a one-year outing basically saying they can cut him after one year they don’t have to give him that money and if you really believed in this guy and you really wanted to give him an extension, you wouldn’t have put that in his contract.

I am a firm believer that, this is just my opinion, that the only reason why they gave him that contract was to bring Davante Adams over here to Las Vegas because Davante Adams has said many times the only reason why he’s a Raider is because of Derek Carr.

Derek Carr and Davante Adams are best friends in real life they are like brothers, they went to college together so you know he wanted to play with his boy and I think they lied to Davante Adams they said Derek Carr was gonna be here long term and they completely lied to him.

It just doesn’t make sense to me because Derek Carr has always been a solid quarterback, he’s been you know overlooked because his win percentage hasn’t been good, if you look at his record you would think he’s a bad quarterback but when you look at his stats he’s actually a really good quarterback.

I mean 2018, four thousand yards, 2019 four thousand yards, 2020 four thousands yards, 2021 four thousand yards, and he would’ve had another 4 thousand yard season if he played all season.

It’s just like how do you give him these weapons and suddenly he’s just not that good no more?

I truly believe that it just all goes to the coach I mean he was doing so good with less all his career and when he gets Davante Adams all of a sudden he can’t perform at a high level it just didn’t make sense to me and still to this day, I believe Josh McDaniels purposely sabotaged him.

Continuing on with this downfall, in free agency we have the 3rd most cap space the 3rd in the NFL and we have not one big move that you could say in free agency that can help this team, not one all we’re doing is sitting there doing absolutely nothing and it’s just leaves me to wonder what is going on?

Because the only big move they made all season long, well off-season well obviously they cut Derek Carr but we all knew that was gonna happen but you traded away your star tight end, Darren Waller for nothing literally nothing, a 3rd round pick, the 100th pick in the draft is what you traded Darren Waller for.

I understand it frees up a little cap space and I understand he’s getting a little old he’s about 30, [or 30-something I think] and he’s been hurt the last two years but if you were gonna trade him at least get a second-rounder, it’s just, I don’t know.

And also I forgot to mention we signed Jimmy Garoppolo to me it’s just like you let go of Derek Carr, ok I get that but you replace him with Jimmy Garoppolo, how much of an upgrade is Jimmy Garoppolo?

People will go out and say I seen on ESPN today, I seen on Fox Sports watching this morning many people were saying, “its an upgrade, it’s an upgrade Jimmy Garoppolo been to the Super Bowl, Jimmy Garoppolo been to the playoffs, and well has Derek Carr been to the playoffs?”

Put it like this, Jimmy Garoppolo since he’s gone to the 49ers has had a great coach with Kyle Shanahan.

You can’t tell me Kyle Shanahan is not a great coach, he’s a great coach not only that he’s had an elite defense with him the whole time you know and it’s just like if you have a team that good, you should make the playoffs you should, and people don’t even mention that year they made it to the Super Bowl, Jimmy Garoppolo wasn’t even the reason they made it to the Super Bowl it was Raheem Mostert.

Do people not remember the NFC championship where Raheem Mostert went for like 200 yards?

Jimmy Garoppolo barely threw the ball and people act like he was the main reason.

So to put it into better perspective, no Jimmy Garoppolo has not been better than Derek Carr, Jimmy Garoppolo’s teams have been better than Derek Carr because I guarantee you if they switched positions you put Derek Carr on that 49ers team I guarantee you they still make the Super Bowl, will they win?

I don’t know because your playing against Patrick Mahomes the better quarterback wins in my opinion so but they would still make the Super Bowl no question about it because Derek Carr is a better quarterback than Jimmy Garoppolo and it just shows.

It’s like to me, Josh McDaniels is trying to rebuild a Patriots team over here it’s turning into the Las Vegas Patriots that’s what it’s turning into because all of this just doesn’t make sense to me umm and like I don’t even know what we’re going to do when it comes to the draft.

I would think maybe try to get Anthony Richardson from Florida and I don’t think that’s gonna happen ok fine that’s ok maybe we could go out and get a defensive stud, I’ll be fine with that.

I just think that, all this money we have in free agency it all needs to go to this defense.

We have a decent back up tight end in Foster Moreau so I’m not, I’m mad that we traded Darren Waller but at the same time I’m fine I’m like ok we got money.

So the off-season moves Josh McDaniels needs to make the quarterback fine you got him Jimmy Garoppolo ok that’s one, defense go get a corner, go get a safety, go get a linebacker, go get a defensive tackle there is an issue on every single position on defense strong safety is weak, cornerbacks are weak, linebackers are weak, defensive front is weak other than Maxx Crosby, there are just many things this team needs to address and offense isn’t one of them.

And the final thing you need to do in this offseason is to pay Josh Jacobs, I know were in a world where running backs don’t get paid, thanks to Ezekiel Elliot, but Josh Jacobs.

I can understand if they don’t wanna pay him but we’re at a point where we can’t afford to lose another great offensive weapon on our team we cannot lose another one because if we lose him I’m afraid if we lose him we might lose Davante Adams because Davante Adams is not gonna want to be here anymore that’s just how I feel.

Josh McDaniels so far after one year I was just like you know what fine, hopefully, we could figure this out but so far this offseason, I don’t know what he’s been doing, I don’t know what he’s been thinking.

Maybe they have something planned right now that I have no idea about I don’t know but they need to make some moves in this offseason because like so far there’s nothing that has been going on like they have not done anything other than signing Jimmy Garoppolo and trading Darren Waller.

Those are the only things they’ve really done other than that they signed a couple of players but those are not players that are going to impact your team right away we need players that are going to impact our team right away and I think Josh McDaniels is not doing that.

That’s all I really have for this little podcast I’m just hoping that we do something useful in the off-season because right now it isn’t looking too good for us.

If it doesn’t well this off-season, Josh McDaniels needs to go.

I know Mark Davis said he’s here long term, I don’t care if he needs to be fired if he’s not doing anything to help this team and that’s all I have thank you for listening.