The Oakland Raiders have had a very busy offseason in which they have landed big names such as Antonio Brown, Trent Brown, and Tyrell Williams, not to mention pieces like Vontaze Burfict and Lamarcus Joyner.
As a result, there are some relatively lofty expectations for the Raiders heading into 2019. At the very least, they are expected to be better than this past year, when they won just four games.
But, there are still a ton of question marks surrounding this team, and it makes Oakland one of the most interesting ballclubs to monitor.
With the Raiders set to play their preseason opener against the Los Angeles Rams on Saturday night, here are three storylines surrounding Oakland going into this game.
3. What Is Going on with Antonio Brown?
We knew Antonio Brown wasn't going to play in the preseason anyway, as head coach Jon Gruden said as much earlier this offseason. But what is going on with his feet?
Brown was placed on the non-football injury list at the beginning of training camp, had one partial practice and hasn't seem the field since. He then posted a brutal picture of his feet on Instagram (don't look it up) and has seen a foot specialist.
The Raiders don't seem that concerned, but they also don't seem to know what the problem is, either.
Basically, Oakland is hoping to have Brown return to the field as soon as possible, but who knows when that will be at this point?
2. How Will the Running Game Sort Out?
The Raiders don't really have a clear-cut No. 1 back right now, with Doug Martin seeming the most likely candidate to assume that role. But Oakland also has Jalen Richard, DeAndre Washington, and rookie back Josh Jacobs, so carries will probably be split.
Obviously, Jacobs appears to be the Raiders' running back of the future, but at the moment, Gruden is acting as if Jacobs needs to prove himself before getting a ton of reps, which is understandable.
We might get a general idea in this first preseason game of how the backfield will shake out, as the Raiders will almost surely want to establish a pecking order going into the regular season.
While depth is a good thing, it's a double-edged sword in this case, because while Oakland has a lot of decent backs, it doesn't really have one that strikes fear into opposing defenses, and that could be a problem.
1. Will the Offensive Line Protect Derek Carr?
Derek Carr was sacked 51 times this past year. For reference, the most amount of sacks he had taken in a single season prior to 2018 was 31.
So, essentially, Carr had virtually no time to do much of anything other than duck for cover in the pocket this past year, which is a big reason why he didn't have his finest hour under center overall.
The Raiders tried to remedy that problem this offseason, going out and landing the aforementioned Trent Brown to solidify the right side of the line, but there are still a lot of moving parts here.
If Oakland wants to have any chance of having an explosive offense in 2019 (and it certainly has the talent to do so), its offensive line needs to actually block for Carr rather than rolling out the red carpet for defenders.
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