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Al Davis loves speedy wide receivers and strong-armed quarterbacks. These are well-known facts that explain -- though don't justify -- many of the Raiders' draft-day decisions.

There was a time, 25 to 30 years ago, when Oakland's reliance on the deep pass was integral to its success. But defenses evolve to combat offensive advancements and what was in vogue a few seasons back will almost certainly be obsolete today.

It's an arms race. Unless you're Davis, who still has visions of Kenny Stabler or Jim Plunkett regularly connecting with Cliff Branch. Meanwhile, the reality is that the Raiders are one of the worst organizations in the league, and there's no reason to think that will change anytime soon.

Mocking the Oakland Raiders is a year-round affair, and the NFL Draft is no different. People who make it their business to know such things were predicting the Raiders would take wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey with the seventh overall pick because -- wait for it -- Al Davis loves speed.

The year before, some folks thought running back Darren McFadden was a stretch with the fourth selection, and then there were the Fabien Washington and Michael Huff first-round debaclements in 2005 and 2006. But the 2007 draft was different: the Raiders chose quarterback JaMarcus Russell with the No. 1 pick, and we all agreed it was the right move.

Last week, NFL Network's Mike Mayock had the Raiders drafting Darrius Heyward-Bey with the seventh overall pick. Not because he thought Heyward-Bey was one of the seven-best players in the draft, or even a top-3 wide receiver. But because Al Davis loves speed. Former Raiders executive Mike Lombardi also had Heyward-Bey going to Oakland for the same reason.

It's easy say Mayock and Lombardi are overstating their case, maybe in an effort to separate themselves from the millions of other mock drafts we're subjected to. But a quick glance at Davis' recent draft history suggests that Heyward-Bey is hardly a stretch, even at No. 7. Last season, Darren McFadden was taken fourth overall, and Fabien Washington and Michael Huff were drafted in back-to-back drafts starting in 2005.

Last year, everything worked out. The NFL invited six players to Radio City Music Hall for the NFL Draft, and all were chosen with the first six selections. It hasn't always been that way; in 2007, a forlorn Brady Quinn spent six excruciating hours -- the last few out of camera shot in Roger Goodell's private viewing room -- waiting to hear his name called.

Two years before that, Aaron Rodgers sat uncomfortably through 23 picks before the Packers finally ended the misery and drafted him 24th.

There used to be a time when professional athletes could take part in a friendly game of basketball and, should they be embarrassed, only have to face ridicule from the few hundred onlookers in the stands.

Now, with the ubiquity of hand-held video cameras and those series of tubes, all posterizations are local. After the jump, Cowboys wide receiver Roy Williams, taking part in Michael Huff's celebrity basketball game, gets dunked on by some gent named Margues Haynes.

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

The 2008 season might go down as one of the most bizarre campaigns in the history of the Oakland Raiders. Lane Kiffin and Al Davis clearly didn't get along, while Kiffin pulled off the impossible task of making Davis look like a sane, rational person.

A team spokesperson nearly decked a beat writer; the punter was, reportedly, punched out by a defensive lineman; and the team on the field finished with a losing season, failing to win more than five games for the sixth consecutive year. Just a disastrous season in every way imaginable.

In the months and days leading up to the 2006 NFL Draft, most folks who know about such things figured Texas safety Michael Huff to be a top-10 pick. In looking back through the '06 draft mags, Pro Football Weekly and ESPN had Huff going seventh to the 49ers, and The Sporting News had the Lions taking him with the ninth selection.

In the end, the Raiders -- a team with needs, well, at just about every position -- drafted Huff seventh overall. And that, in all likelihood, was the highlight of his professional career. Huff started every game in '06 and '07, but only managed seven starts last season. In three years, he has 191 tackles and 17 passes defended but just one interception.

The Oakland Raiders nearly watched yet another fourth quarter lead turn into defeat, only to find a way to sneak out of Sunday's game with a 16-13 win over the New York Jets, giving Tom Cable his first win as Head Coach.

It had to a bad omen, or something, when Cable tried to ice Jets kicker Jay Feely at the end of regulation as Feely was lining up to kick a 52-yard field goal. Cable tried the "I'm going to call a timeout just before you snap it" trick, and was laughingly burned when Feely hit the upright on the kick that didn't count. Feely drilled the mulligan, of course, sending the game to overtime.

I figured this strategy would play its way out of the NFL after a few moments like that, yet here we are.

Raiders kicker Sebastian Janikowski mercifully ended a brutal overtime period -- personally, I was rooting for the tie -- when he crushed a 57-yard field goal with less than three minutes to play. The kick probably would have been good from about 65. Either way, it was the longest overtime field goal in NFL history.

Things are bleak for the Oakland Raiders right now. The owner is crazy, the new head coach thinks the second-year quarterback may be in over his head, former players think they suck ... it's mayhem out there. Of course, there are some positives in the bay area, starting with cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, who may be the closest thing the NFL currently has to a "shutdown corner."

Looking at the numbers, there's nothing that really jumps out and makes you say, "wow, that guy is awesome." He currently has 11 tackles, three passes defended and zero interceptions. You might be asking what the big deal is. Well, it's tough to bat down passes and register interceptions when nobody throws to your side of the field. From Raiders beat writer Jerry McDonald:

Asomugha recounted one pass thrown at him in each game, with the exception of the Chiefs game, when there was two. Every week he talks himself into believing it will be the game where teams will come after him, and every week he's wrong. He writes all of it down in a spiral bound notebook he showed to reporters Wednesday. "Don't get lazy because they're not throwing at you," Asomugha wrote in his book, followed by reminders of what can happen if he happens to let his guard down for even a single play.

Ahhh, the way talented yet wholly unmotivated players hold teams ransom -- keep them, look forward to mediocre production; banish them, risk flipping the switch and seeing that talent actually manifest itself somewhere else.

Which must make this news music to Lions fans' ears:

Recently, Rogers appeared at Michael Huff's inaugural celebrity basketball game at Austin, Texas.

According to the Austin American Statesman, Rogers, who played in the neighborhood of four bills last season for the Detroit Lions, looked closer to a svelte 375 and demonstrated his athleticism by throwing down a left-handed dunk in pregame.

Yeah, watching Shaun Rogers -- maybe the most gifted defensive tackle in the league when inspired -- wreak havoc on offensive lines this year would be yet another stab in the already oft-punctured hearts of Lions fans (almost like New Jersey Devils fans watching Scott Gomez leave for the New York Rangers and proceed to tear them up in the playoffs -- not like I'm bitter or anything).

Anyway, getting in shape was less of a problem for Rogers in Detroit as staying in shape, so this means nothing yet. Still, for a fanbase that embraces misery, it's another reason to be indignant before the draft surely provides them many more.