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In a move that surprises no one, Raiders Defensive End Richard Seymour will be given the franchise tag designation. He will make just above $12 million in 2011 if the Raiders and Seymour don't come to terms on a long-term deal. I think Davis will come to terms with Seymour, because he will want to hold on to the player he traded a 2011 first-round pick for until at least 2011 and probably for as many as 5 seasons. Seymour is a class act and the best defensive lineman on the Raiders roster. Seymour will be 30 this year, but a 35 year-old lineman isn't that much of an issue. Plenty of interior line players play well into their mid-thirties. In other news, the combine is starts today with weigh-ins and test. There is sure to be a ton of action on twitter, so follow me @Raidersblog for news and updates. I'll bring periodic Raider-centric combine updates on the blog as well.

"Raiders will not try to sign Gradkowski to contract-he is getting a tender. He will be shopped to other teams at Combine." -Ralph Cindrich

This morning, Adam Schefter of ESPN, reported that the Raiders are shopping its entire roster , including Nnamdi Asomugha.The insider article states that Asomugha's contract makes him nearly untradeable due to a large roster bonus due on March 5 and the cost to franchise him next season being the average of the top 5 highest paid Quarterbacks. As Schefter points out, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees are all due large extensions, pushing that number well beyond what anyone would dare to pay. Making the entire roster available comes as no surprise. Al Davis has always made players available to see if the right deal comes along, one that obviously favors the Raiders. What isn't known is what the Raiders would be seeking in any deal. Draft picks? Players? What players would have value around the league? The simple answer is young players with cheap contracts. A couple examples would be Tyvon Branch, Michael Bush, Louis Murphy, Zach Miller and Chaz Schilens. The othe...

ESPN's Adam Schefter reports that Sebastian Janikowski has reached an agreement on a 4-year $16 million dollar contract with $9 million in guarantees. Seabass has turned into one of, if not the best kicker in the league in the past few seasons. He had a probowl caliber season. Seabass hit 89.7% of his field goal attempts. He only missed once from 40-49 and twice from 50+. According the to rating system devised by profootballfocus.com, Janikowski graded out as the second best kicker in the league. Al Davis is never shy about paying for a player he likes and what is not to like about a consistent kicker who can bang it from 60+ yards? For fear of wasting too much space here on a kicker, I'll wrap it up with a single line. Seabass may never live up to being selected in the first round, but he has turned into one heck of a kicker. Glad to have you back, Seabass.

Raiders and 49ers fans will forever be locked into a location rivalry. The clean-cut fans from San Francisco and the rough edged fans from Oakland. Most people greet any shared stadium idea with very negative sentiment. I am not sure why, because Raiders fans really have one of four options: Relocate to a new city with a new stadium? Become a bottom 5 team year after year playing in the old Oakland Coliseum? Be second class citizens playing in the 49ers new stadium? Share a stadium with the 49ers in a 50/50 split? I'll outline below why these are the only options. I'll ask this question: What about the Giants and Jets? Do they share less hatred for the other team than that brewed in Northern California? That doesn't seem as likely. Jets fans and Giants fan share equal disgust for each other. In fact, the Jets have long been second class citizens at Giants Stadium because the Jets are were only minority partners. With the new stadium comes a 50/50 partnership and the ability...

Year after year, Al Davis sizes up his coaching staff. Starting first with the head coach. Prior to Norv Turner, a sub 8-8 record was unacceptable and grounds for immediate firing. Below is a bit of history you may already know, but is worth mentioning for what I will get to after. After a five win season for Norv, Davis thought best to allow the scouting department, for which he is the main decision maker, to re-tool the talent depleted team after the run of the late 90s and early 00s. After all, that run was due in large part to aging super stars such as Tim Brown, Jerry Rice, Rod Woodson and Rich Gannon. After Turner failed to increase the win total to an acceptable level, Davis went the familiar route of looking for a new head coach. I believe to this day Al Davis wanted Sean Payton, but when Payton spurned the Raiders for a raise in Dallas, Davis was forced into a corner. He waited a while without finding a plan B and when the market of potential head coaches dried up, he was left...

One could look at the Raiders offense and decide to scrap the entire thing. If you take a deep look at each element there is some hope, but as a group, you might as well throw it away and start new. The Ford Pinto of a quarterback? Already melted into a block of metal. The aging big-rig of an offensive line? Most of them were picked up off the side of the road to begin with. The receivers? Salvage quality Ferrari. The backs? Salvage quality Lamborghini. So what is one to do with a couple broken down sports cars, old trucks, and a melted block of metal that used to Pinto? Fix the sports cars, replace the trucks and attempt to mold that block of metal into a Buggati. Well, if you know anything about cars, fixing a Ferrari or a Lamborghini can be expensive. Big-rigs last a long time, but buying them isn't cheap. We all know it would take considerable time and effort to mold the block of metal into a Buggati, or even the frame of one, but maybe attempting to mold it into a Toyota would...