Questioning the validity of Dave Ziegler as Raiders GM in the early going
Questioning the validity of Dave Ziegler as Raiders GM in the early going
The disaster that was free agency – Dave Ziegler’s first free agency period in Las Vegas and the many mistakes that followed (1/2)
You remember free agency, Raider Nation. How beautiful was it?
Chandler Jones was set to join Maxx Crosby on the D-line, effectively giving Las Vegas a pair of All-Pro edge rushers. Demarcus Robinson and Keelan Cole coming in to give the Raiders legitimate depth at receiver. Tyron Johnson was ready to take off. Jayon Brown joined the Silver and Black, strengthening the linebacker core. Anthony Averett giving the Raiders’ secondary an extra dose of toughness.
What a time to be a Raider fan.
Ziegler had the Nation behind him as fans sang praises of their team’s new general manager. As it turns out, the reality is Ziegler made mistake after mistake during this year’s free agency.
His first mistake – not even so much as being interested in signing an offensive lineman to help fix the 28th-ranked O-line from one season ago (Alex Bars aside, who posted a pass blocking grade of 19.1 last season and remains the worst overall graded OL player on the Raiders’ line).
Before moving on, the above statement about Alex Bars, who’s both a starter and the lowest-graded player on Las Vegas’ offensive line needs to be put into perspective.
As we know, 2021 first-round pick Alex Leatherwood was cut due to his inability to block in the passing game. Leatherwood was a liability to his quarterback’s potential health, and the Raiders’ new regime rightfully thought it best to replace him. As bad as Leatherwood was, his ’21 pass blocking grade was 29.0; an entire 33% higher than Bars (19.1), who would go on to ultimately take Leatherwood’s spot on the line.
But perhaps that wasn’t the plan. Perhaps Ziegler tried to bring in another talent, but other talent chose to go elsewhere.
Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. In fact, Ziegler was quite blunt about his interest in offensive linemen during free agency.
"“You’re in all those markets pretty consistently, and there was no offensive lineman that we were interested in.”"
It isn’t that the new regime only brought in a select few players, either; albeit, that wouldn’t be a real excuse regardless. During the offseason, Las Vegas brought in 25 new faces who played for other teams in 2021. As mentioned, Bars was the only O-line player in the group.
Some may argue that the Raiders’ offensive line has succeeded their expectations regardless, but the line is nothing to write home about. Not only is the unit responsible for making Derek Carr the seventh-most hurried quarterback in the league, but they allow the seventh-most hurries despite Carr being blitzed the 24th-most in the league; numbers courtesy of FantasyPros.
Currently, the line built to protect Carr ranks 22nd-best via PFF’s Week 10 O-line rankings. You can bet being one spot outside of the bottom 10 wasn’t anyone’s expectation in the building.