Today’s Saints game was like his entire Raiders’ career in a microcosm. His first pass-- perfectly thrown, hits an open receiver in stride, right in his hands, and the receiver muffs it, flips it into the air, and it lands right in a defender’s hands.

His offensive line was non-existent, and he was rushed/hit/sacked on pretty much every drop-back. Even still, he stood in there and was bringing the team back, until he was hit hard just after he threw a dime, and knocked out of the game.

The Saints’ defense couldn’t stop anything all day.

Carr played an excellent game. His teammates were ass.

It was his entire Raiders career in one game.

My belief, based on a lifetime of watching football, is that a QB is only as good as his offensive line and his coach. Teams that excel at both areas win, teams that don’t, lose. O’Connell is more than good enough to win if he’s properly coached and properly protected.

I also believe that nearly no QB is a sure thing. For every sure thing that panned out, 10 more sure things were busts. The only certainty is that when you draft a QB early, you have to pay him a fortune. We’ve seen this time and time again.

If the Raiders absolutely must draft a QB, I hope it’s J.J. McCarthy. He’ll probably be available when they draft, and he has the most potential of anyone who is also likely to be available then. That said, I’d rather they focus entirely on the offensive line and their defense. If they trade up, I hope it’s to draft a tackle like Olu Fashanu or Joe Alt. QBs are easy to find in later rounds (Brock Purdy anyone?) but tackles aren’t.

Before anything, the team needs a coach. Jim Harbaugh is the obvious choice. If they can’t get him, there are some promising offensive coordinators, but, as we learned with our most recent coaching hire, they come with some risk. A proven winner like Harbaugh should be the top choice.

What about the home game we just lost 31-17 to the Chiefs makes you think we can go into Kansas City and win? I want that as much as anyone, but be realistic.

Minnesota looks to be at about the Raiders level right now, so that game could be a win. The other four teams-- Chargers, Chiefs, Colts, and Broncos-- all look significantly better than us right now. That doesn’t mean we can’t beat any of them, but 1-4 seems like the most realistic culmination to this season.

Top draft picks are overvalued. There’s no guarantee you’ll get the best guy, but there is a guarantee that you’ll have to pay him like one.

Analysis shows that teams draft the correct player 52%, or slightly more than half, of the time. That isn’t because they’re stupid, it’s because there is no way to know. There are rare years where there is a near-sure-thing (Elway, Manning, Luck, Lawrence) but again, those are rare.

Look at where some of the better QBs playing today were drafted and you’ll see that the QBs drafted 1st are rarely the best.

Patrick Mahomes was drafted 10th. Mitch Trubisky went 2nd that year.

Josh Allen was drafted 7th. Baker Mayfield was the 1st player drafted that year, Sam Darnold 3rd. Josh Rosen went #10 that year. Lamar Jackson was taken 32nd that year.

In 2020 they got it right, when Burrow went 1st. Then Tagavailoa went 5 and Herbert 6. We could argue that Herbert is better, but jump down past Jordan Love at pick 26 and find Jalen Hurts with pick 53.

2022 is the prime example: Kenny Pickett, Desmond Ritter, Malik Willis, Matt Corral, Bailey Zappe, Sam Howell, Chris Oladokun, and Skylar Thompson were all drafted before Brock Purdy was taken with pick 262.

Dak Prescott was taken 135th overall in a year where Jared Goff went 1 and Carson Wentz 2. Paxton Lynch was 26, and Christian Hackenburg, Jacoby Brissett, Cody Kessler, and Connor Cook all went before Prescott.

2015 Jameis Winston was the #1 overall pick, Marcus Mariota #2

2019 Kyler Murray was #1 overall pick. Daniel Jones was #6. Both have been failures. Gardner Minshew, by no means a great QB, was taken with pick 178, and you can argue he’d have done at least as well as either Murray or Jones. Even if you disagree there, I think it’s a given that those were wasted draft picks.

The best two QBs to ever play the game?

Joe Montana, drafted 82nd overall
Tom Brady, drafted 199th overall

I’m surprised Penix is the choice. He’s had 4 season-ending injuries in his college career so far, including two ACL tears.

Nothing against him, but I don’t think he’s the answer at coach. Maybe if the team were a consistent winner we could take a flyer on him, but for a team that has had only a couple good years in the past 2+ decades, I think Davis needs to finally hire a coach with a proven track record, and build a staff around him that can win.

Look around the league at the teams that are consistent winners and you’ll see that they don’t promote a linebacker coach with 1 season of NFL coaching experience to head coach. While that DOES seem exactly like the sort of thing the Raiders would do, it isn’t a wise move. You don’t want someone with no experience learning on the job, especially not when your team has been the league doormat for as long as the Raiders have been.

I think the Raiders either need to go the experience route like the Chiefs, Broncos, etc. and bring in Jim Harbaugh, or another coach with a lot of experience and a history of success, or go the young mastermind route, like the Rams, Dolphins, 49ers, Eagles, Lions, etc., and make a play for Ben Johnson, or someone similar.

They should not do the “let’s give this random guy a shot” method, and they definitely shouldn’t do the “he was on Belichick’s staff” method.

O-line played great, and our secondary did its job. The defense held an offense that had been averaging 32 points per game to 20 points, and did that with next to no support from the offense. They also took the ball away 3 times. That is much on the secondary as any other defensive unit.

The play-calling wasn’t bad, either. O’Connell simply couldn’t make a lot of the throws. He missed open men many times, and threw a very bad interception. I don’t think Garoppolo would have looked much worse.

I know some of you don’t want to hear this, but could you imagine this team with Carr at QB? Unstoppable.

Unless he wins the Super Bowl, the Raiders need to bring in a new team, preferably once with experience.

You can’t credit him for getting Adams. He was coming here no matter what. Spillane was a solid acquisition, O’Connell hopefully is, too, but we have no idea yet. Overall, he was a major failure as a GM, and we’re better off without him.

The Lions are having their way with the AFC West. They’re 3-0 against the Chiefs, Raiders, and Chargers, and will hopefully make a clean sweep of it later this season when they play the Broncos.

If Davis offered the Patriots Adams and Crosby, I think they’d free Belichick to come to Las Vegas. We’d cut some dead weight salary-wise, and get the coach we need.

Imagine how invigorated Belichick would be if reunited with McDaniels? Bring in Drew Bledsoe and you have an unbeatable trio. I know Belichick must on some level want to finish a perfect season, and he’d finally have the chance to do so.

But it doesn’t HAVE to be. If we can get Belichick as HC and bring back McDaniels as OC we’ll be cooking.

Nothing against Eminem, but that looks like some trailer park level Italian cooking.

Well, I’m from California and the Celtics are my least-favorite franchise in all of sports, so they nailed that one. I wonder why Alaskans hate the 49ers.

January 1980 is when I started watching the Raiders, and when I discovered football. I’ve been a fan ever since. And while I understand where you’re coming from, things feel different.

The Raiders have lost their identity, and it’s never coming back. Al Davis was a maverick, and a genius. Mark Davis is a buffoon, and a lousy human being to boot. It’s hard to root for his team. I still do, but I just don’t care much anymore.