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Rams vs Raiders fantasy football advice

Amari Cooper to heat up early Everyone calm down and focus on your breathing! The excitement of the NFL season starting along with the pressure of not knowing who to start in fantasy football is a deadly combination. But for now Womens Reggie Nelson Jersey , we will help give some fantasy insight on the Oakland Raiders game on Monday night to help calm those nerves.Instead of doing start/sit like last year, we are changing it up a little with three different categories: Must start, proceed with caution and bench.Must StartWR Amari CooperIf I am the Raiders’ coaching staff, I would do all I can to make sure Amari Cooper gets the ball early and often. Not only is he the most explosive weapon on the Oakland offense, so getting him the ball wherever on the field will reward the unit, Cooper needs to get the season off to a good start to gain confidence. Any sort of repeat from last season is unacceptable and will greatly hinder the team’s chances of making a playoff push. So I would be shocked if Cooper doesn’t get a few easy catches early in the game to get his motor running. Cooper also might welcome the sight of Marcus Peters since the only good game of Cooper’s 2017 campaign was against the Kansas City Chiefs and Peters when Cooper hauled in over 200 yards in the exciting Thursday Night Football win. QB Jared GoffThe Raiders pass rush has looked real good in the preseason, but that is the preseason. The team is relying on two rookies, Arden Key and Maurice Hurst, to improve the rush. And Bruce Irvin has to become Batman not Robin. Even when they had Khalil Mack last season they struggled to get to the quarterback. Without Mack it is tough to say the unit can be improved. As such, there is a possibility that Jared Goff might have all day to throw at certain times considering that happened a fair amount last season. The one worry against Goff is if Todd Gurley gets going too well and a lead grows resulting in Sean McVay limiting Goff’s attempts. RB Todd GurleyThe Raiders run defense in 2017 was hot and cold. At the beginning of the year, the team was handing out fantasy points to running backs like it was its charity service. But the team did see an improvement after the bye week. So the question becomes, what will this run defense look like? Jon Gruden brought in two maulers in Maurice Hurst and PJ Hall to help plug the middle with Justin Ellis. So in theory the run defense should be a lot better along with more disciplined coaching. But there is no Mack to shut down one entire side of the running game. In terms of Gurley, he gets the job done against anyone. So depending on how the defense plays, it will either be a good game or a great game for Gurley. He had 19 touchdowns in 2017, there is no shutting him down. Proceed with CautionQB Derek CarrI am really high on Derek Carr this season and it seems to me that the team is going to have to put up a lot of points to compete this season. And while I am close to moving Carr into the must start category, it is tough to do so when looking at the Rams’ defense that includes an inside presence of Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh along with Peters on the outside. Oakland’s offense line includes a rookie left tackle and an aging right tackle coming back from offseason foot surgery yet the unit will have to find a way to block Suh and Donald. If the run game doesn’t get clicking early, Carr might be rushed on a few throws or be thrown onto the dirt infield a little bit too much. WR Brandin Cooks History screams start Brandin Cooks. I still have nightmares thinking about him and what he has done to the Silver and Black recently. But part of me thinks his success has been due to poor discipline in the secondary from lack luster coaching. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit to see Cooks get loose and sprint down the sideline toward the end zone. But I wouldn’t be shocked either to see an excellent game plan that bottles Cooks up and makes sure he doesn’t get behind any safeties with possibly slower wheels (Reggie Nelson). BenchRB Marshawn LynchFor as highly as Oakland’s offensive line is touted, the unit has struggled to dominate running the football against elite defensive fronts. And there isn’t a more elite unit than one that has Donald and Suh. That duo could possibly stuff all the running gaps themselves without any other help from their teammates. Lynch might need a timely touchdown to post a solid fantasy week and that’s not a great bet to take. It is also a crowded running back room with the addition of Doug Martin and the speedy Jalen Richard. I can’t help but feel for Paul Guenther. The guy came here excited to work with Jon Gruden and try to improve this Raiders defense and now is probably asking himself what he got himself into. Normally you expect to take over a team and stick with what works and fix what didn’t. And by the season opener, the team was without their leading tackler (Navorro Bowman) Youth Marshawn Lynch Jersey , sack leader (Khalil Mack), and top interior defensive lineman (Justin Ellis) from last season.This left them with a defensive line that can’t stop the run, no pass rush to speak of, and a linebacking corps that can’t stop anything. The only thing after that was the secondary where Guenther has been rotating players all season trying to find the right mixture. “I’ve really never been through anything like this before because when I took the job there were a lot of guys that were either up for free agency or that I thought were going to be on the roster,” said Guenther. “Obviously, there was a lot of changes. Guys got signed to other teams and we had to fill those spots in with some of the veterans with the cap money that we had. It’s been a challenge.”For the first six weeks of the season, winning was the priority for Guenther. Hard to say if it Jon Gruden had the same priority considering he essentially gave up on the season before it started by trading Khalil Mack to Chicago. The reason, I say six weeks is because that was the game in London against the Seahawks when, heading into the bye week, the team was 1-5 and the hard shift began. Of course Gruden isn’t going to say the team is no longer focused on winning. He responded directly to that question, insisting the rest of the season is not about “auditioning” guys.The thing is though, it should be. And it would appear Guenther realizes this and knows the shift to the evaluation phase of this rebuild project is now in full effect.“Having our vision was to bring in some young guys in the draft, we did that and they’re playing,” Guenther said Friday prior to Sunday’s game. “We’re going through some growing pains with the young guys. Hopefully the more and more snaps they get, the back end of the year here and going into year two we’re going to see massive improvements.”Sunday the Raiders saw five rookies start and ten rookies play significant snaps. Half of those rookies were on the defensive side of the ball — Maurice Hurst, Arden Key, PJ Hall, Jason Cabinda, and Nick Nelson. Other young players also saw extensive work as the team looks to see what they have in them. All with the aim of evaluating them over the final eight games of the season.All season the Raiders have seen a whole host of rookies taking considerable snaps. They have no choice. Combining them with aging veteran castoffs has made this defense the worst in the NFL. That’s not something Guenther is used to. He has to remind himself there is a plan here.“Every day Womens Derek Carr Jersey ,” Guenther said of how often he has to tell himself to be patient. “Every day, because obviously, I’ve been a part of and with a lot of good defenses in the past. There’s certain things and breakdowns that we’re having that we shouldn’t have – that I’m not used to seeing. And again, it is a patience thing, but I’m not the most patient guy and I want to get this stuff fixed quickly, because otherwise, that’s part of the evaluation process with the guys we have now moving forward in the last eight games to see what guys we want to keep here and what guys we want to move on with.”That evaluation was kicked into another gear against the Chargers. Guenther gave undrafted rookie Jason Cabinda the start at middle linebacker and moved second year linebacker Marquel Lee to the strong side. Second year man Nicholas Morrow saw his most snaps of the season as well. Gruden liked what he saw with the changes at linebacker.“I thought Marquel had the best game playing that position,” said Gruden. “Morrow, we’d like to see more and more from him. I thought Cabinda did some good things at the middle linebacker, too. I was pleased with a lot of things I saw from our young defense.”Rookies Maurice Hurst and Arden Key started along the defensive line while rookie PJ Hall and third year man Shilique Calhoun saw significant minutes as well, nearly getting his first sack of the season.Most notably he increased rookie cornerback Nick Nelson’s snaps and gave third year safety Karl Joseph his first start of the season. Nelson taking over the nickel corner for veteran Leon Hall is the natural transition that must take place at this point.“Pretty good, pretty good. We like him,” Gruden said of Nelson. “He had five or six coverage opportunities yesterday. You saw for yourself what he’s capable of doing. He has some quickness and size and strength to play the nickel position. I think he played 25, close to 30 snaps, something like that. Leon Hall’s snaps were down at the nickel position, but for his debut I thought he played pretty good. I was excited about it.”With the exception of Erik Harris, last Sunday the Raiders put every young hopeful they had on the field to get a long look at them. They have seven more games for that to continue and even increase. There won’t be many wins to come from that strategy — perhaps none at all — but as difficult as that might be for Guenther and the Raiders struggling defense, it’s the only way to proceed.Follow @LeviDamien

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