Oakland Raiders veterans unsure how to help team turnaround

If you thought the fans of the Oakland Raiders were left unsure of how things will change with the team following a flat outing in a loss to the Arizona Cardinals that failed to build on an impressive showing against the San Diego Chargers, the veteran players in the locker room are equally lost in searching for answers on how to reverse their fortunes. Starting 0-6, the Raiders players seemed despondent in their postgame pressers according to Vic Tafur of the San Francisco Chronicle. 

ProFootballTalk reported Tafur’s quotes on Monday, featuring plenty of depressed comments from the likes of Charles Woodson, Antonio Smith and Carlos Rogers as things do not appear to be getting better in Oakland any time soon. All three appearing drained by things not going their way despite having chances to finish games and earn victories against the Jets, Patriots, Chargers and Cardinals this season. Now with six straight losses, it appears the veterans on the team are done telling the media that things are going to get better for a team looking at another season with no playoffs.

From PFT:

"Among the many things to dislike about the outcome was the fact that the Raiders failed to build on the previous week’s gains on offense while the defense struggled to get off the field after spending the previous week concentrating on improving their play on third down. The Cardinals converted 60 percent of their third down tries, which was even worse than the NFL-worst 51 percent that the defense had given up coming into Week Seven.“I don’t know how to take that … not being able to get it done,” safety Charles Woodson said, via the San Francisco Chronicle. “I’m not sure where to go with it at this point.”Woodson’s veteran teammates share his confusion about how to move forward at this point in the season. Defensive tackle Antonio Smith said the team tries to fix things every week, only to be left “wondering why it ain’t working” on gameday. It’s the kind of thing that can make a team want to close up shop, but cornerback Carlos Rogersvowed to keep fighting and keep his teammates fighting in the weeks to come.Even with that fight, though, he knows that better days aren’t guaranteed for a team that hasn’t won in a very long time.“We’ll see how it goes,” Rogers said."

It should be noted that the Raiders veterans aren’t going to mail it in as many are working on deals with very little to no dead cap space meaning that they have to earn their contract that could be nixed in the offseason. However it is depressing for both players and fans to see loss after loss each Sunday, halfway to two straight months with no victory Mondays in sight, it is hard to see things turning around even if the Raiders have one of the little remaining winnable games on their schedule this Sunday in Cleveland. Set as seven point underdogs against the Browns, the Raiders will still need to defy the odds to end the growing chatter about a potential embarrassment of an 0-16 year in Oakland.