The Oakland Raiders have signed free agent linebacker Kaluka Maiava to a three-year, $6 million contract. The Former Cleveland Brown was drafted in the fourth round of the 2009 NFL Draft. He appeared in all sixteen games for the Browns in the last two seasons.
Former Browns LB Kaluka Maiava signed with the Raiders: 3 years, $ 6 million.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 13, 2013
Last season, he collected 35 solo tackles, 2 sacks, and 2 forced fumbles.
Initially I had Terrelle Pryor’s name in the headline. So be it. To be frank the Quarterback situation in Oakland may be the worst in the league — fans of the Jets, Bills, Chiefs and Jaguars have legitimate claims to to that mantel.
Carson Palmer has left the game after being jacked up by Panthers pass rusher extraordinaire Greg Hardy. Unfortunately for everyone involved — most especially Carson — the hit was illegal.
The few of you who started the Panthers defence today are in luck. Palmer’s one completion on the day was to fellow Quarterback Terrelle Pryor. You can’t make this up.
Update 2:04pm:
X-rays negative on Carson Palmer, but his return is questionable.
— CBSFantasyFootball (@CBSFantasyFB) December 23, 2012
Throughout the season our Madden Nostradamus has given us many bits of wisdom, all of which come from the video game machine’s inner oracle powers. No doubt you’ve used every one of them for your Thursday night fantasy decisions, including starting Kevin Ogletree in Week 1. If we can’t trust a video game, I’m not sure that I can live in this world anymore.
But this week’s sim led us to a strong conclusion. Namely, START DARREN MCFADDEN TONIGHT.
We (and by that I mean Scott Johnson, our Madden maestro) usually do this sim on Wednesday mornings, because despite all appearances to the contrary, there’s some degree of preparation required to produce most of the content which appears on this Internet writing space. So we sometimes have to make a very educated guess about injury statuses, and the expected workload of players who may be playing in a limited capacity.
It’s Week 14, and that process hasn’t taken a big bite our of our collective asses yet. That ends now.
We knew Darren McFadden would most likely, almost definitely play this week, but prior to doing this sim exactly how much work he would receive remained uncertain. So we went conservative, and kept Marcel Reece slotted in. And whatever, because McFadden will bust a body part on his second carry tonight anyway.
What Madden then told us through Reece is that you need to start Raiders running back X in all fantasy lineups.
Use your imagination while watching the virtual reality below (*head asplodes*), and pretend Reece is McFadden It really doesn’t matter, because either way Madden’s message is clear. The Raiders running back who’s the starting running back is a running back that you need on your roster tonight.
Yeah, that just happened. The Raiders beat the Broncos 20-3. Madden cares little for your facts and history, and the Broncos’ real-life spanking of the Raiders earlier this year in Week 4, winning 37-6.
Consensus line: Broncos -10/-10.5, total 48.5
Current betting percentage: 74% on the Broncos, 56% on the OVER
Individual Team Trends:
Head-to-Head Trends:
After being treated to a quality NFC South Thursday Nighter between the Saints and Falcons last week, we’re back to the norm when the Broncos pay a visit to Oakland to “battle” the Raiders tonight. The NFL should really consider instituting a rule that prohibits AFC West matchups in primetime. They’re awful. But luckily for everyone reading this blog, we’re blessed with the ability to wager on games as terrible as this one.
Many basic human activities are difficult in a pounding monsoon. Like, say, walking, or seeing anything. So from that we can deduce that the difficulty of football activities is also multiplied. Want to throw down field? Ha, good luck running around those small ponds while the pocket collapses and holding on to that slippery ball, and then catching said ball.
I just described the conditions for today’s Browns-Raiders game in Oakland. That is, if the game was being played at about 10 a.m. local time, which it isn’t. And if the game was kicking off during the height of an overall brutal day of weather on the left coast, which it isn’t. React to the weather reports you’re seeing right now plastered all over your Twitter timelines, but don’t overreact.
Darren McFadden isn’t expected to play this afternoon against the Cleveland Browns as the Raiders protect their recently recovered running back from the expected sloppy playing conditions.
After optimism he would play this week, Raiders RB Darren McFadden unlikely to play today vs Cleveland.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 2, 2012
McFadden has missed the Raiders’ last three games with an ankle injury, and he was listed this week as a game-time decision. In his absence Marcel Reece, who will start today, has recorded 225 rushing yards rushing and 175 receiving yards.
Reece will be up against a Browns defense that allows 118.4 yards per game on the ground, good for 19th overall in the NFL.
The Cincinnati Bengals and Oakland Raiders are making strides as organizations, but they’re still miles apart. That was evident this past Sunday, as the Bengals tormented their opponent with a throttling 34-10 victory. Cincinnati now sits at 6-5 and is on the verge of entering the knockout stages of the National Football League, while Oakland sulks near the basement of the AFC West once again with a mere three wins to their name, although I’m not entirely sure if they’re truly that poor of a club.
While the Raiders were rebuilding, the Bengals kept on building their lead. They threw touchdown after touchdown with short pass after short pass, which was akin to a rolling ball of paper cuts. Ins, outs, shoots, and slants were the routes of choice for the Bengals, and the Raiders seemingly had no answer for them. The slants, in particular, were detrimental to the Raiders’ defense, especially the Double Slants concept.
