The Raiders have spent the past few years looking less like Silver and Black and more like something else.
It is difficult to blame them. As a franchise in a multi-year transition before moving to Las Vegas, things were not exactly pleasant in their last two seasons in Oakland, the Raiders were not like the Al Davis era club, but one that was less smug and more unruly. Jon Gruden could frown as much as he wanted, but it would be more about the struggles on the field than about his team’s chances of dominating an opponent.
Davis regards the team’s new home to the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas as a symbol of the team’s bright future, one embodied by the first-round pick of Alabama catcher Henry Ruggs III. That choice would have made his Davis’s father proud, young Davis believes.
“Henry Ruggs was the player he wanted for the past six months,” Davis said, through an excellent feature in The Athletic on Davis settings as an owner in Las Vegas. “My father was always trying to replace Cliff (Branch) with so many different types of men … Speed, speed, speed and we really walked away from that in the last five, six, seven years. We really didn’t have anyone who could run, no one could run.
“I looked at Henry Ruggs and his speed, swiftness and strength were pretty impressive. And then if you see his best moments in baseball, OMG. He made some nice tackles on interceptions and he will also block. He’s a complete player. I was so excited we recruited him. Maybe that’s the piece we haven’t had, it’s the Raiders football. You throw it deep the first play and security is worried the whole game. “
That last line is the classic ideology of the Raiders, which has since penetrated all levels of the game to varying degrees. Speed kills, as they say, and for the first time since the last few months of the Darrius Heyward-Bey’s Raiders first-round run, they have a legitimate burner on their receiving body. They will no longer have to trust Amari Cooper, a very good receiver in their own right, but not a speed demon as their best deep threat.
It will be up to Ruggs to produce, of course, but it’s a good pairing: a new stadium and a new toy for the offense, taking it to a new home, even if it takes a while before a full house can be completed. there to see it.
