5 Things To Watch For In 2018 Raiders Week 4 Preseason Game Vs. Seahawks

Jeff Spiegel
Jeff Spiegel
4 Min Read
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

With a season-opening, Monday night matchup against the Los Angeles Rams looming, the Oakland Raiders wrap up their preseason with a game against Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks.

Given how little the starters played last week, you can assume that anyone of consequence will find themselves without pads on this week — but that doesn’t mean this game will be without intrigue. On Sept. 1, the Raiders will need to release 37 of their 90 players, and this game will go a long way in determining who survives and who doesn’t.

1) Chris Warren, Rushing Champ?

Heading into Week 4, the undrafted rookie out of Texas leads the league in rushing yards with 250 (53 more than anyone else). With guys like Marshawn Lynch and Doug Martin surely to get quite a bit of rest, it’s reasonable to assume Warren will get another heavy dose of carries.

2) Kolton Miller and Donald Penn

While most starters will get the week off, it will be interesting to see whether these two get some extra work in as they adapt to a new level (Miller) and a new position (Penn). If they don’t play (which seems likely), coaches and fans will have to cross their fingers in hopes that they figure it all out once the lights come on.

3) Linebacker battle

As I set out to make my roster predictions, linebacker was one of the toughest positions to gauge. While Emanuel Lamur, Derrick Johnson, Tahir Whitehead, Marquel Lee, Nicholas Morrow and Kyle Wilber all seem like safe bets to make the team, there are two other guys with an outside chance at making the roster: Jason Cabinda and Azeem Victor.

Cabinda is a nickel linebacker, while Victor was one of the team’s sixth-round picks from this past season. If either guy wants to establish himself as a special teams standout or necessary part of the 2018 defense, this is the time to do it.

4) One more defensive line position up for grabs

Fadol Brown and Shilique Calhoun have both had great preseasons, but with the ridiculous amount of depth the Raiders boast along the defensive line, this might be a situation where we have two guys fighting for one spot. Calhoun has the advantage of coming out of college with a pedigree (he was a third round pick), but even he was cut by the Raiders last season before being added to the practice squad. Brown, on the other hand, was an undrafted free agent out of Ole Miss.

5) Can we get some excitement?

With all of the starters figuring to be on the bench, it’s hard to imagine this being a good game, and yet, it’s also hard to imagine it being any worse than the last two. One reason for the lack of excitement is Jon Gruden’s desire to keep his approach a mystery as he re-enters the league this season. While that won’t change this week, maybe some guys fighting for their playing lives will bring a little more juice than we’ve seen lately.

Information

Jeff Spiegel was raised in California but currently resides in Portland, Oregon. After graduating from the University of Oregon, he worked in sports before entering journalism full time — first as a Sports Reporter and then as the Associate Editor of a small newspaper. Online, he has been writing about both the Raiders and Dodgers since 2012 — having written for DodgersNation.com and SBNation.com prior to joining both DodgerBlue.com and RaidersNewswire.com. He left full-time journalism in 2012 to become a pastor. Jeff can be found on Twitter at @JeffSpiegel. Favorite Raider This one is an easy one for me: Charles Woodson. When the Raiders drafted him, there was nothing to dislike about the guy — he was exciting and he was freaking good. Unfortunately, of course, he left after eight seasons — but when he returned in 2013 it was one of the better Raider moments of my lifetime. At that point, I didn't care how washed he was (and he wasn't!) — I just liked having him back in the silver and black. Obviously Tim Brown is another guy that was easy to love, but Woodson is the all-timer for me. As far as current, I'm still a believer in Derek Carr and think he's going to figure this all out. Favorite Raider Moment I think I'll go with the two weeks leading up to the 2001 Super Bowl. As a kid, I remember getting the newspaper every morning to read what they were talking about, clipping out the articles to keep for later. It was obviously far more exciting than the Super Bowl itself, but I'll never forget those moments of hope leading up to the Super Bowl. I referenced it above, but second to that was probably the return of Charles Woodson in 2013 — I just loved the guy, and never dreamed he'd actually come back.