Dreessen, Ryans, Winston, Brisiel, Leach.

[76Texan]

Originally Posted by GP

We cannot pay everyone.

It's the price/cost of becoming a GOOD TEAM...all these players want bigger money, and they know they can leverage it against us OR get what they want from lesser teams who have more space than we do.

I think we should have found the money and space to retain Brisiel, though. He was a consistent blocker on the right side that would not have cost much more money. How is he faring in Oakland, anyways? I have not followed the guy there.

This is what I have on Brisiel:

He has yet to give up a sack and was charged with two penalties so far.

He suffered a concussion last week agains the Falcons (so he's in the same boat as Caldwell on this end; otherwise, he's healthy.)
Before he left the game late in the second quarter, the Raiders were 12-22 in the running game.
Without him, they went 20-127.
Big difference.

The Raiders RBs averaged 3.15 ypc with Brisiel in the game (all 5 games.)
I don't know how much it has to do with Brisiel.

One thing I know is that ProFootballFocus reported him as having a bad day against the Dolphins (at least as bad as Caldwell did, it looks like.)

"Offensive Line Questions

A large part of the difficulty the Raiders have found in running the ball has to do with the play of the offensive line. The interior of the unit — left guard Cooper Carlisle, center Stefen Wisniewski, and right guard Mike Briesel – combined for an overall grade of -8.8 this week. The entire group had problems with the Dolphins’ defensive line and was constantly overpowered, struggling to get movement laterally to execute their zone blocking scheme and looking equally unimpressive in the passing game."

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blo...lphins-week-2/

...

Overall, it doesn't seem like we missed Brisiel all that much.
Had Caldwell been fully healthy, I don't think we miss Biscuit at all.
I like his tenacity and give-it-all attitude and his solid play, but going forward I think we'll be fine at RG with either a healthy Caldwell or a more seasoned Ben Jones (not to mention the upside of Brooks.)