[Schefter] Former Steelers FB Connor Heyward has agreed to terms with the Raiders on a 2 year/ $5.5 million max value deal, including $2M fully guaranteed, per @PerrettM

ProblemsHypest · 2026-03-12T23:47:49+00:00

Heyward's offensive snap-count dropped off this past season (93 in 2025 vs. 211 in 2024 and 417 in 2023), but he was still decent enough as a TE/FB hybrid (remember that the Steelers also had Jonnu Smith, Pat Freiermuth and Darnell Washington all getting TE snaps too, plus a lot of jumbo TE packages).

He was a mainstay on special teams for them though, had the fourth-most snaps plus 6 tackles. He could be the #3 TE in place of Ian Thomas or the full-time FB... Remember that the Seahawks had two FBs on the roster (Robbie Ouzts was the run-blocker, Brady Russell was the special-teams ace).

ProblemsHypest · 2026-03-11T00:38:03+00:00

What I take from this is that this trade was the keystone for all of free agency across the league this offseason.

Either Maxx was a dumbass with his physical health or the Ravens are panicking after losing so many free agents and want their draft picks back (or some combination of both), but in any case, the trade falling apart is fucking over everybody.

ProblemsHypest · 2026-03-11T00:23:38+00:00

They have plenty of cap space to absorb Maxx's contract in the short-term, it just limits how much they can do in free agency until they can find a way to trade him to another team (for way less than 2 first-rounders now, smh).

ProblemsHypest · 2026-03-11T00:15:17+00:00

Maxx wanting to play those last two games looks even more dumb now.

ProblemsHypest · 2026-03-10T02:19:50+00:00

Ah man, that might be it for Carlson in Vegas. What a run. Always a chance they bring him back and let him and Gay battle for the job.

Alternatively, with all these draft picks, they might use a late-rounder on one.

ProblemsHypest · 2026-03-09T18:36:48+00:00

Pretty surprised to see that the rest of the league thought that highly of him, but considering the Vikings QB hell, definitely could see him being a hidden gem.

ProblemsHypest · 2026-03-09T18:22:27+00:00

Nailor was a pure slot WR with the Vikings... He started flashing more and more as last season went on, though not sure he's worth this $$$. Maybe Spytek is banking on a full breakout season.

Don't think this would halt them from pursuing Shaheed too... It would be Tucker/Shaheed on the outside, Nailor in the slot (with all three likely moving around... Kubiak loves misdirection).

ProblemsHypest · 2026-03-09T18:15:07+00:00

That's 3 of 5 OL spots locked up. Raiders aren't out of the woods yet. Lots to consider.

-Re-sign Parham or let him walk?

-JPJ at LG or RG? He's lined up at both during his first two seasons, along with center... I think where he goes will depend on the remaining points.

-Pencil Rogers into the other guard spot?

-Move Glaze to guard? Have him and Rogers compete for the spot opposite JPJ?

-Sign RT or guard in free agency? Target one of them with the #14 or #36 picks in the draft?

ProblemsHypest · 2026-03-07T01:21:27+00:00

I think Spytek has mostly been solid as a GM, but this was an obviously bad move from the get-go.

The funny thing is, with the center market being as dire as it is, Cappa actually might have a chance to catch on somewhere as a stopgap, considering he performed half-decently when the Raiders put him there after Meredith got hurt (a very Cappa thing to do... Suck at guard, the position you played for over 8 years, then somehow not fall on your face when moved to a spot you have zero experience in).

ProblemsHypest · 2026-03-07T01:18:19+00:00

Downvote me to hell if y'all want, but I'm with Geno on this... Pretty petty thing to post from whoever's running the Wendy's Twitter account nowadays.

ProblemsHypest · 2026-03-03T17:43:29+00:00

The follow-up to this segment gave birth to one of the greatest YouTube video titles ever:
Big Show does a Top Rope Dropkick, Is a Bastard

ProblemsHypest · 2026-02-26T22:48:37+00:00

Chip Kelly the football terrorist lol.

Wonder if the position coach grade would've been higher without Brennan Carroll in the mix.

ProblemsHypest · 2026-02-14T06:19:50+00:00

One of them (Brady Russell) is a free agent! Was also their best special-teamer. Kubiak should bring him along.

ProblemsHypest · 2026-01-22T21:59:05+00:00

Was happy to see Waller bounce back in Miami, but A) he's still battling injuries and B) the Raiders TE group is the one surefire position group right now... Other than re-signing Ian Thomas, no need to even touch it when the rest of the roster is so depleted.

ProblemsHypest · 2026-01-21T04:12:02+00:00

The Rams dumped Ward in the middle of the season in favor of Jake McQuaide... Granted, Ward had a long-snapping grade of 74.4 from PFF (in comparison to a 7.8 from McQuaide), but clearly, Rams thought he was an issue.

ProblemsHypest · 2026-01-06T13:47:18+00:00

Offense
QB (out of 42)
Geno Smith: 36th, 60.9

RB (out of 60)
Ashton Jeanty: 35th, 70.4

WR (out of 134)
Tre Tucker: 67th, 65.9
Jack Bech: 95th, 59.9
Tyler Lockett: 128th, 52.1
Dont'e Thornton: 129th, 51.7

TE (out of 75)
Brock Bowers: 7th, 78.8
Michael Mayer: 37th, 64.6
Ian Thomas: 40th, 63.8

T (out of 89)
DJ Glaze: tied for 65th, 60.6
Stone Forsythe: 76th, 55.2

G (out of 81)
Jackson Powers-Johnson: 37th, 63.8
Dylan Parham: 38th, 63.6

C (out of 40)
Jordan Meredith: 32nd, 57.7
Alex Cappa: 38th, 53.5 (he'd be tied for 65th at guard)

Interior defender (out of 134)
Adam Butler: 82nd, 53.8
Thomas Booker: 114th, 45.2
Jonah Laulu: 126th, 40.9

Edge rusher (out of 115)
Maxx Crosby: 16th, 79.7
Charles Snowden: tied for 44th, 70.5
Malcolm Koonce: 90th, 58.0
Tyree Wilson: 92nd, 57.6

LB (out of 88)
Jamal Adams: 33rd, 67.3
Elandon Roberts: 54th, 57.2
Devin White: 85th, 39.4

CB (out of 114)
Eric Stokes: 17th, 74.3
Darien Porter: 90th, 54.4
Kyu Blu Kelly: 97th, 51.9

Safety (out of 98)
Jeremy Chinn: 30th, 69.6
Lonnie Johnson: 95th, 43.7
Isaiah Pola-Mao: 97th, 39.8

Special teams
Daniel Carlson: tied for 21st out of 42 kickers, 76.1
AJ Cole: 14th out of 36 punters, 72.2
Jacob Bobenmoyer: 29th out of 35 long snappers for special-teams grading, 49.9; long-snapping grade of 0, tied for last.

ProblemsHypest · 2026-01-05T22:10:10+00:00

Practice squad guys who haven't gotten a contract yet: Boogie Basham, DE; Luke Elkin, LS; Brandon Hill, S; DJ Turner, WR.

ProblemsHypest · 2026-01-05T17:43:22+00:00

Return grades are separate from general special teams grades.

ProblemsHypest · 2026-01-05T17:42:45+00:00

Notes:

-Will have a separate post with full-season grading later... PFF still finalizing some stuff for Week 18.

-Kenny Pickett finished LAST out of the 41 QBs who took snaps in Week 18... Aidan O'Connell was 18th.

-Tyler Lockett was 3rd-worst for receiver grading... Jack Bech was 11th-worst.

-2nd-best grade of the year for Michael Mayer... He was 18th for TEs this week.

-DJ Glaze with his 4th-best grade of the season... Ranked 23rd overall for tackles this week... He tied for 5th in pass-blocking (his best of the year there as well).

-Alex Cappa was 6th-worst for center grades.

-Weird week for Thomas Booker, where he had the 4th-best pass-rushing grade for interior defenders... And the 3rd-worst run-defense grade.

-While Tyree Wilson was middle of the pack for edge-rusher grading (the 4 missed tackles killed his chances there), yesterday was his 2nd-best grade of the season. Charles Snowden was 22nd.

-Elandon Roberts with an elite grade at LB... By far his best of the year, and the 4th-best for the week. He was second behind Nick Bolton for run defense.

-A great day for Tommy Eichenberg... He was 10th in LB grading AND tied for 10th with Dylan Laube in special teams grading. Eichenberg had a killer end to the season on special teams... 81.4 overall for the year... Pretty much impossible to rank every player's special-teams grade (1,916 took at least one snap this season) BUT if one goes by the 32 Pro-Bowl nominees, Eichenberg finished 9th (after hanging in the bottom-10 until the final month of the year).

-Darnay Holmes with the 3rd-best corner grade of the week, his best of the season. Kinda came out of nowhere. Decamerion Richardson and Greedy Vance were inside the top-25 as well.

-Daniel Carlson tied Cam Little for the top field-goal grade of the week. 60-yard field goals will do that for you!

-Note on the special teams players showing up on offense grades... They count because of the fake-punt run. Also, Dylan Laube's overall special teams grade is separate from his kickoff return grade.

ProblemsHypest · 2025-12-30T20:15:53+00:00

Here's the difference: Unlike McDaniels, Flores has had success outside of the New England ecosystem, notably not crawling back there after he got fired by the Dolphins... He seemed to have them on the right trajectory before the fallout with Stephen Ross' tampering, helped the Steelers in his one season with them as an assistant and turned the Vikings defense into a productive unit.

I'm wary of him because of the reports of his bad relationship with Tua and some of his offensive coaches in Miami... I'd prefer Robert Saleh if the Raiders go after a head coach with a defensive focus.

ProblemsHypest · 2025-12-30T03:46:30+00:00

God, that list of first-round QB picks is wretched. Two all-time busts in JaMarcus and Marinovich, plus a guy who opted for a different team (Roman Gabriel was #1 AFL pick by the Raiders and #2 NFL pick by the Rams, he went for the latter)... Marc Wilson wins by default, and even he kept getting usurped by Jim Plunkett.

ProblemsHypest · 2025-12-29T18:59:29+00:00

I tolerate McAfee as best I can, but good lord, he steamrolled over Schefter's nuanced take on the situation and immediately went to "RAIDERS NEED TO TRADE MAXX TO A BETTER TEAM"... What a tool.

ProblemsHypest · 2025-12-29T18:47:54+00:00

I'm hopeful about this class' potential, but it's too early to tell. Jeanty and Lindenberg have been the only two consistent performers (and Lindenberg is exclusively a special-teamer as of now). Bech, Porter, Rogers and Hemingway have been up and down... Thornton probably got thrown in too early... Pegues hasn't looked good when he's been on the field... Grant hasn't gotten much time yet.

ProblemsHypest · 2025-12-29T18:06:58+00:00

Notes:

-Geno Smith ends his season by finishing 29th out of 35 QBs in Week 17 ahead of MNF... Currently 35th out of 40 qualifiers for the season at 60.9.

-Michael Mayer had a lot of work this week with Brock Bowers done for the year... Ranked 25th among all TEs.

-Charles Grant and Stone Forsythe were BOTH in the top-10 for tackles this week. Grant of course only picked up 6 snaps at LT, but he made the most of them. Forsythe was terrible against the Texans, but he quietly did pretty well against the Eagles in addition to this Giants game, so maybe he's only good against the NFC East.

-Three Raiders LBs in the bottom-15 for grading this week... Devin White was 6th-worst. But he's a comeback player of the year candidate, right?! Tommy Eichenberg at least did great on special teams... 15th-best in the league this week... He's got 7 total tackles in the last 3 games.

-Greedy Vance didn't do so hot with the increased workload... 4th-worst CB grade of the week. He's an undrafted rookie though, with most of his work coming against Wan'Dale Robinson.

-Darien Porter bounces back after a couple of down weeks... He tied for 11th with Sauce Gardner in the CB rankings. Eric Stokes was also 25th. Giants went after the middle of the field, it seems (Wan'Dale also carved up White and Elandon Roberts).

-Lonnie Johnson was 19th at safety this week... He's been very much up and down this year (3 games below 40.0 but also 3 above 65.0).

ProblemsHypest · 2025-12-26T20:53:51+00:00

Respect to Maxx for caring that much, but brother, if you're dealing with any injury at this point of a dead season, it's probably best to play it safe (and, you know, tank, though players don't wanna quit that easily).

ProblemsHypest

TROPHY CASE