Oakland Raiders: 5 questions to think about during the bye
By John Buhler
With the Oakland Raiders on their bye in Week 10, here are five questions to think about going forward during Oakland’s week off from the 2017 NFL season.
After a solid win over the Miami Dolphins on Sunday Night Football in Week 9, the Oakland Raiders will be one of four NFL teams that will be on their annual byes this week. Joining them will be the Baltimore Ravens, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, all of whom Oakland will have played at least once this season.
Though the Raiders are only 4-5 on the season, they are still alive in the AFC playoff hunt. To be fair, their margin for error is razor-thin. Oakland will need to go at least 5-2 the rest of the way to have any realistic shot at making the AFC playoffs. They do have some tough matchups on the slate, but will have a chance to regroup during this week off.
It’s been mostly a frustrating season for the Silver and Black. After going 12-4 only a year ago, this team has almost no chance to win over 10 games this season. Though this might be a team that thrives on adversity and momentum, you know, winning back-to-back games post-Halloween would be fantastic.
Step by step, we’ll get through this 2017 NFL season, for better or worse. With the Raiders on their bye, here are five questions we can take some time to think about with regard to this football team as we get ready for the final seven games of the regular season.
Can the Raiders get healthy enough in the secondary during the bye?
Perhaps the biggest point of frustration this season for the Raiders has been the awful play of the Oakland secondary. Two players in the defensive backfield have had fair to good first half. Those two would be slot cornerback T.J. Carrie and second-year strong safety Karl Joseph.
Figuring out who the third-best player in the Raiders secondary has been is painstaking, as there isn’t one. Not only does this team not have an interception through nine games (how is that possible?), but the Raiders have been too banged up in the back-end for their own good.
Their top two picks in the 2017 NFL Draft in cornerback Gareon Conley and safety Obi Melifonwu have been riddled by injuries thus far. Conley has dealt with shin splints since training camp. It wouldn’t be shocking to see him go on Injured Reserve, ending his rookie season before it even really began. Melifonwu just came off IR, but didn’t do much in his Raiders debut last week versus Miami.
Other players that have been hurt in the Oakland secondary include Joseph, cornerback David Amerson and cornerback Demetrius McCray. If Oakland wants any shot at making the playoffs, the Raiders will need the secondary to step up big time. Not sure this position group has it in them, unfortunately.