The Oakland Raiders signed Doug Martin this offseason to join Marshawn Lynch in the Bay Area. With the Raiders surprisingly staying away from a runner in the draft, Lynch and Martin will battle it out in training camp to see who gets the majority of carries behind that mauling offensive line.
Last year when Marshawn Lynch came out of retirement there was plenty of hype surrounding Beast Mode and his possible explosion behind Oakland’s solid offensive line. That didn’t happen. Much like the big expectations on Oakland’s offense as a whole. Lynch failed to put up over 1,000 yards as his total carries dropped to a near career-low 207 attempts.
He began the year on a four-game suspension and struggled to really get anything going upon his return as he was phased out of the offense for the likes of Peyton Barber. A new location in Oakland could very well help him bounce back into relevancy as we had enormous hopes for Martin last preseason.
Starting with Derek Carr, the surrounding cast in Oakland is a positive. They have some talent at receiver with Amari Cooper, Jordy Nelson and Seth Roberts, along with a solid tight end in Jared Cook. However, it’s the offensive line that is the greatest asset in Oakland, where they ranked 8th in PFF’s offensive line rankings. Gruden wants to turn back the clock and he found two elder statesmen to do just that. This committee has a chance to be putrid, but if one of them wins the job outright, there could be some potential here.
