Fix the specialist positions
The specialist have been an issue for the Raiders all season long, and it all began when Eddy Pineiro was put on injured reserve prior to the season. The team had to go out and get Mike Nugent, who has since gotten injured, and has been replace by Matt McCrane, who is far from accurate.
At punter, the Raiders went out and drafted Marquette King‘s replacement, and he has not worked out up until this point in the season. Rookie Johnny Townsend just does not look like he has an NFL leg at this point, and all those good feelings from the summer have gone away in only six short weeks.
Pineiro will be back next season, and should be the front-runner for the starting gig in camp. Townsend has the next ten games to get his act together, because if he continues to punt this way, the Raiders will be in the market for a new leg sooner than later.
So that is it. Just accomplish all of that over the next 11 months and we should be good to go. In all seriousness, this Raiders team is going to need a lot of work over the next year if they want to be competitive once again in 2019, and have a solid team heading into Las Vegas. So far, the moves have been head-scratching at best, but Gruden’s contract is long, so we have no option but to hope he knows what he is doing.