Raiders Cut 3 Players, 2008 Offseason Was Total Failure

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.

Just a quick rundown of the moves made by the Raiders a year ago:

-- Traded a second and a fifth round pick to the Atlanta Falcons for DeAngelo Hall, then signed Hall to a seven-year, $70 million contract. He was released after just eight unimpressive games in the silver and black, and was paid $8 million for his services.

-- Signed Javon Walker to a six-year, $55 million contract. After being criticized by Lane Kiffin for not earning his salary in training camp, Walker caught just 15 passes before his season ended in week 10 due to ankle surgery. Clark Judge of CBS Sports was not a fan of the signing. At the time, it appeared as if Oakland was the only team that had any serious interest in Walker.

-- Made defensive tackle Tommy Kelly the highest paid defensive lineman in NFL history. Nothing else needs to be said.

-- Signed free agent safety Gibril Wilson to a six-year, $39 million deal. It made him, at the time, the third highest paid safety in the NFL. Just off the top of my head without doing any thinking on the subject: Ed Reed, Troy Polamalu, Brian Dawkins, Adrian Wilson, Bob Sanders, Sean Jones, (a healthy) Rodney Harrison. All safeties I'd take over Gibril Wilson. Just saying.

-- Signed free agent defensive end Kalimba Edwards to a two-year, $5 million contract. He set a career-high with 48 tackles for the Raiders, and recorded five sacks. However, as Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee points out, he faded down the stretch and recorded no sacks over his final six games. Still, this was probably the best signing the Raiders made a year ago in terms of bang for their buck.

Overall, that's a ton of money for relatively little production. Hopefully the Raiders learned their lesson and won't repeat these same mistakes this offseason.

On the plus side, this offseason seems to be off to a much, much better start in Oakland. The Raiders have already managed to keep punter Shane Lechler and All-Pro cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, a task that was seemingly impossible a couple of months ago.

Though, not everyone is thrilled by the news. Jason Cole of Yahoo! sports cites a couple of league executives that are outraged by the money the Raiders paid their two best players this offseason (yes, their punter is one of their best players). I don't know, I think they're a year late in their anger. If there was a move they should have been pissed off about it's the fact they tried to pay DeAngelo Hall $70 million (or Gibril Wilson $39 million ... or Javon Walker $55 million). At least Asomugha can cover somebody and not get outrun by a possession receiver wearing one shoe.

Beyond that, and not to open up another can of worms here, but at least a player such as Asomugha has proven himself as a legitimate, impact player in the NFL (and, yes, keeping teams from throwing to his side of the field just by his presence is making an impact). In a couple of months some executive, maybe even one of the ones complaining about Asomugha's deal, is going to guarantee Matt Stafford about $25 million before he even throws a pass in the NFL. Seems fair.