Oakland Raiders: Kicking the Tires of Three Veteran Linebackers

Let’s assume that Al Davis stays true to his offseason mantra of pursuing players fresh off a Super Bowl experience—I mean, who can forget the wildly successful acquisition of Cowboys safety Larry Brown after Super Bowl XXX?

This was, perhaps, the worst knee-jerk reaction in Oakland Raiders history.

To recap this face plant: Davis snatched up a Super Bowl MVP (before the paint was even dry) and gave him a boat load of cash, only to find out that a Brown couldn’t play man-to-man defense.

Torched…

Brown played just 14 games for the franchise before being run out of town on a rail.

The same can be said of Russell Maryland, Desmond Howard, and more recently, Super Bowl hero Dominique Rhodes.

All were major disappointments and a waste of resources.

Hey, on the bright side, I haven’t mentioned DeAngelo Hall or Javon Walker.

But I digress...

When free agency starts in March, Davis better have a plan, something that will address the team's needs and energize the fan base.

According to several sources, Richard Seymour has started talks with the Raiders, but the next issue should be upgrading the team’s linebackers.

Here, let me set up this overhead projector, so we can better access the mind of A.D. Football.

We know Davis covets players who will carry on the “Raider way.”  Plus, they must have a big-game pedigree.

Jerry Rice, Rod Woodson, and Bill Romonowski did these things very well with other teams and proved to be smart signings when they came to the Raiders.

But the method of Davis’ madness is kind of like predicting the weather. Like the weatherman, Davis is wrong about 50 percent of the time and still has a job at the end of the day.

With that in mind, here are two veteran linebackers who could be hits in Oakland...and one tha...