FanHouse RonaldCurry

One of my favorite moves on fantasy football draft day is taking a late-round gamble and letting everyone else laugh at me. You can have the first round, just let me pick late. To illustrate, here's an actual message board post last season after one of my drafts: "Commish Snyder purposefully did not draft a kicker so he could take a flier on yet another long shot (Steve Slaton of the Texans). I'm sure he'll say it will pay off in the long run."

My response? "I'll end up dropping Patrick Crayton (my fifth WR) for a kicker before week 1 when Slaton wins the Houston gig -- unless someone suffers a season-ending injury, in which case I'll drop that person."

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The Rams have been getting noticed for their incredibly physical training camp under the new Steve Spagnuolo regime. There are many positives to having a physically intense camp, but there's always the increased risk of losing an important player to injury. Remember, the Rams dodged a close call with their franchise player last week.

Friday night, No. 1 wide receiver Donnie Avery came down with a foot injury during an intrasquad scrimmage. The injury wasn't believed to be serious, but, come Sunday, Avery was experiencing enough pain that the team ordered an MRI. The results came back with bad news.

Another NFL draft has come and gone, and it's possible that you spent much of your weekend glued to a television set laughing at the Raiders and screaming for your team to find the next Tom Brady at the bottom of the sixth-round. If you're like me, you live in an area of the country where your only option for draft day coverage is ESPN's wire-to-wire mayhem.

If you happened to miss the draft, or watched it on the NFL Network, here's what you missed.

In the massively daunting project that is rebuilding the Detroit Lions' roster, there are going to be some moves that earn marquee billing -- trading for Julian Peterson was one, drafting No. 1 will be another. Those big-ticket moments will be the centerpieces of Detroit's quest to achieve respectability, or at least less-embarrassing mediocrity.

But while the Lions work hard to find some top-level talent, their ability to round out the roster with quality players may be just as important. So far this offseason, new Detroit general manager Martin Mayhew has done a solid job at that task. Mayhew's latest moves had Detroit inking wide receiver Ronald Curry and fullback Terrelle Smith to one-year deals.

With the draft approaching, we ignore projections and identify the dream scenario for each team in a series we call The Perfect Draft.

The Oakland Raiders are coming off their sixth straight losing season and will be entering 2009 with their fifth different head coach in seven years.

For the second consecutive offseason, the Raiders have spent a gargantuan amount of money on cornerbacks Nnamdi Asomugha and Chris Johnson, and punter Shane Lechler. The Raiders also find themselves in their customary spot in the top 10 of the NFL draft, and their biggest need is pretty obvious.

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.

On Friday, the Oakland Raiders released safety Gibril Wilson, defensive end Kalimba Edwards and wide receiver Ronald Curry, saving the team about $6 million against the 2009 salary cap.

Think back to last offseason when owner Al Davis, in an effort to return his once proud franchise to glory, was signing blank checks with a stamp and passing them out to second-tier free agents like it was the fashionable thing to do. A year later, it's becoming obvious as to how much of a total failure the offseason was.

No team in the NFL has completed fewer passes this season than the Oakland Raiders, and frankly, it's not even close. That's probably not all that shocking to you, seeing as how JaMarcus Russell is a second-year quarterback, and the Raiders are, for the most part, a running team blessed with a deep backfield including Justin Fargas, Darren McFadden and Michael Bush. Naturally, like any team, they're going to stick with their strength.

Still, Russell has struggled at times, while also showing flashes of the potential that made him the No. 1 overall pick a year ago. Perhaps one of the problems he's dealing with this season is the fact his wide receivers are, well, for lack of a better word -- terrible.

Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee pointed out today that the Raiders haven't had more than one wide receiver catch a pass in a game in four weeks, and that Michael Bush, a 245-pound running back -- who is now playing fullback -- is second on the team with 18 receptions.

Sounds pretty bad. But it gets worse.

Following Sunday's beat down in New Orleans, Raiders coach Tom Cable had an awakening of sorts when he realized his quarterback, JaMarcus Russell, is still developing. He also came to the conclusion that his receivers can't catch, which tends to be a problem for young (and experienced) quarterbacks. Here's what he had to say then:

"But I do know this. We've got to catch the ball when it's thrown to us and we've got to run the right routes that we're supposed to and be where we need to be on time."

Cable claims there were eight dropped passes in the loss to the Saints, though, I'm not sure if he was counting dropped balls by the Raiders receivers, or dropped balls by the Saints secondary. But Cable is correct, the receivers have to catch the ball, and thus far, nobody is catching the ball.

Having said that, there's going to be a few changes on Sunday when the Raiders host the New York Jets. Ronald Curry is going to be grabbing a seat on the bench, while rookie seventh-round pick Chaz Schilens will be making his first NFL start.

It's time for another session of "sink or swim" where you have to make the tough choice of cutting the bait or hanging on for another week. Don't worry; I'm here with a heavy dose of pessimism to give you some clarity. I probably can't tell you who's gonna save your season, but I can sure identify some candidates that can and will sink your season.

Today's spotlight focuses on the Oakland Raiders WR's. This unit is front and center today, because you just have to wonder if the Raiders will ever get it right. Neither Tim Brown, Jerry Rice or Rocket Ismail (kidding) is walking through that door anytime soon. Al Davis has always been infatuated with the so-called "vertical attack", but his blueprint has failed miserably in recent years.
Kerry Collins, Randy Moss and Jerry Porter never quite got the plan off the ground and so Davis has gone back to the drawing board once again. He's brought in the big arm of JaMarcus Russell and paired him with WR's Ronald Curry and Javon Walker.

Well, Walker has yet to take a regular season snap and Curry looked marginal at best in Week 1. Now comes the hard part. You must decide if you're gonna stay committed to this Oakland passing game or run for the hills and say goodbye to either Walker or Curry.

Well, let me help you out if I can. Follow me...