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

A series of questionable roster cuts – Kenyan Drake

Robinson isn’t the only head-scratching Raiders’ cut victim who’s excelling with a new team. In fact, he isn’t even the only player who ended up in Baltimore that fits the bill. Next up is Kenyan Drake.

With Drake missing time in camp due to injury, Ameer Abdullah stepped up and took his place in the offense. Eventually, Abdullah would take Drake’s job in full, leading Las Vegas to part ways with the 28-year-old.

This move never made any real sense, and 10 weeks into the season, it continues to grow more mind-numbing than it originally was.

Replacing a player of Drake’s caliber with someone who’s totaled less than 400 rushing yards since 2018 doesn’t seem like a good plan. And, as it just so happens, it wasn’t.

Abdullah has totaled 66 receiving yards this season, with zero rushing attempts. Even third-down running back Brandon Bolden has only mustered up 34 rushing yards. Meanwhile, Baltimore newcomer Kenyan Drake has rushed for 344 yards with three touchdowns, not including an additional score through the air.

Some may say this was a cap move, but that was never true. Even at this very moment in time, Las Vegas finds themselves with the fourth-most cap space in the league, via Spotrac. Drake was on the latter half of his two-year contract, so there was no commitment in the future either.

The Raiders’ latest cut victim was Johnathan Abram, who was quickly claimed by the 3-6 Packers. ESPN’s Field Yates reported the 3-win Broncos also put in a waiver claim for Abram, but Green Bay had higher waiver priority.

Another cut that doesn’t make too much sense, is who may be the next former Raider to excel with his new team.

This move makes even less sense when considering Josh McDaniels’ comments on Dave Ziegler during Friday’s press conference. McDaniels stated Ziegler isn’t planning for nine months out, but rather for a sustainable future.

Here’s the problem with that – Abram, 26 years old, was set to be a piece of the Raiders’ future. Not only did the former first-round pick improve each season, including this year, but he was improving in his biggest areas of weakness.

This season, Abram had logged a career-low opposing passer rating, and a career-low completion percentage when targeted, and has yet to give up a touchdown. He also managed to post a career-low missed tackle percentage of 4%, besting his previous top mark of 10.8% by a wide margin.

To understand this is to understand Abram, still on his rookie contract, was cut in favor of 31-year-old Duron Harmon, who’s been playing great football. If you don’t see the problem, replacing the youthful, consistently improving Johnathan Abram in full with a crafty 31-year-old is a nine-month vision, not a plan for a sustainable future as McDaniels stated.

Of course, this is only made more confusing by the fact Kenyan Drake was replaced by two running backs older than him, with Brandon Bolden being 32 years old. Not to mention Demarcus Robinson is younger with more tread on the tires than Keelan Cole.

Something isn’t adding up. Then again, not much has added up this far; why should this be any different.