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“MEMO-MARK DAVIS”
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To: Mark Davis
Fr: Hacksaw
Re: The Black Hole

I’ve seen alot of bad football over my years covering the NFL, as the Voice of the Chargers, the Seahawks, and covering the Cleveland Browns.

But what I saw on Monday Night, the Raiders dismal outing against an equally putrid Atlanta Falcons franchise defies description.

Bad enough the franchise had a (2-11) record.  Terrible the siege of injuries that have sidelined what few quality players you had.  Awful the holes virtually everywhere in that offensive unit.

But this is more than an isolated bad season.

This is a continued denigration of what was a proud franchise in the 1970s into the 1990s, that has fallen on bad times because of continued bad decisions made by upper level management for a decade plus.

The drafts have been pitiful, from failed DBs, to alcohol troubled receivers and some real bums on defense.

You feel sorry for self-made stars like Maxx Crosby or reliable-dedicated starters like Kolten Miller.  It must be culture shock for #1-draft pick TE-Brock Bowers.

Sure losing Christian Wilkens, Mal Koonce and others have wrecked what might have been potential on the defense.

But this is beyond just your injured reserve list.

The Raiders couldn’t wait to run off Derek Carr.  You let Josh Jacobs walk to Green Bay.  You dealt away Davante Adams.

On Monday night, you subjected a nationwide audience to see your 3rd failing, struggling QB of the year.  There is no run game.   The pass catchers are not difference makers.  The offensive front is weak.  The defense is wafer thin in terms of health and depth.

When kicker Daniel Carlson might turn out to be your best offensive player,you can see the sickness everywhere on that roster.

How many coaches, names and no names, are you going to hire-fire-buyout?  How many GMs have been in that chair?

The scoreboard does not lie, a franchise that has just 2-winning seasons in 22-years, and that includes miserable years at the end of the Raiders run in Oakland.

You should have heard the Monday Night ESPN-TV crew mocking what the Raiders franchise has become.

The same Raiders franchise that was blocked years ago in attempts to move back into Los Angeles into a new stadium proposed with the Chargers ownership led by Dean Spanos, who screwed the fans in San Diego after 55-years of loyalty to move to LA to be a non-entity in that market despite a great quarterback.

The NFL refused to allow a bad product and a shoddy business operation to sully the league in the #2-market in the country.  This had nothing to do with the Raiders fans following.  It was your product.

Tough decisions coming.  Keep or fire Coach Antonio Pierce?  Which QB do you spend your very high first round pick on?  Do you give Tom Brady the key to the decision making room when it comes time to fix this sick franchise?

Hate to say this.  The colors may be Silver & Black.  The fans, sporting colors and paint and costumes show up, stoned, drunk, maybe sober.  It is surprising why they spend their hard earned money to support this product.

But it’s the NFL, and everybody makes money, but not everyone can be a Rooney, a Dan Camplbell, a Packers at Lambeau or others successful.

You may think you are successful or well liked.  Nobody thinks much of the modern day Raiders under your guidance-leadership or failures.

So here we are, watching your offense compile 101-yards in offense in the 4th quarter.  Watching 2-punts get blocked and a point after deflected..  Seeing zero yards rushing.  Turnovers, sacks, and boo birds.

Sorry to pile on but this is awful.

Oh one other thing, forget the facade.  You are not your father, with the exception of the last name and the all white game days outfits.

Pitiful what you have created and continue to operate, a franchise, it’s success long gone back in the day,  now living in a new version of the ‘Black Hole’.  Raiders football-in-2024.

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“CHARGERING…THE REAL BOLTS”
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Chargering…You know, losing games they should not lose at the wrong time of the year.

I told you this was coming, and it has.

The Chargers, with a battered quarterback, a struggling offensive line, a collapsing defense, and a bunch of false platitudes, have fallen on hard times.

Yes the NFL standings today show them (8-6) and hanging on to the last wildcard playoff slot.

It will show you 3-losses in the last 4-games.

It should really be a worse slide than that, the aftermath of the torch job Tampa Bay did on them on Sunday at So Fi Stadium, that sounded more like a Bucs home game, than a game in Los Angeles.

Baker Mayfield was brilliant.  Throwing laser shot fastball passes everywhere, finishing with (288P-4TD), running his season count to 32-TD passes.

#13 is not an unlucky number,unless you have to cover him.  When Mike Evans was done with the Bolts secondary, he had (9R-159Y) thru the air.

And Bucky Irving, the rookie RB-from Oregon muscled his way for 117R-as Tampa piled up (222R) in a 505-yard offensive day.

Justin Herbert got rocked, sacked, hurried.  No points in the second half, standing on the sidelines watching Tampa reel off 27-straight points in a terrible homefield beat down.

It was an awful day.  Herbert’s NFL streak of 357-straight passes without a pick,   is over,picked off in the 3rd quarter.  He was sacked 3-times, took 6-hits and 5-pressures and was overwhelmed, without a running game and with shoddy protection upfront.

Guilty parties everywhere.  Anybody hear Joey Bosa-Khalil Mack’s name mentioned?

Quit praising  Kris Fulton, who gave up 6-passes and a TD.  Derwin James fame never showed up Sunday either, 3-missed tackles, blown coverages and a TD allowed.  Tarheeb Still got roasted on a TD pass by Evans.

The Bucs skewered Jesse Minter’s defense for 13-chunk plays including dagger in the heart plays of 21-22-24-35-26-35-54-57 yards.

So much for the Jim Harbaigh sales pitches about changing culture, the defensive toughness, the brilliance of his QB and all the other things said in this suddenly in trouble season.

I said a month ago, prove to me how good you are, now that you are playing someone.  Joe Burrow of the Bengals and Kirk Cousins of Atlanta should have beaten them.  Baltimore punched them in the mouth, the Steelers slugged them, Kansas City took alot out of them at Arrowhead, and now big play after big play by Tampa Bay and their flame throwing QB.  They should have a 5-game losing streak.

Next week Denver, which has 9-wins, can you believe that, 9-wins, comes to town.  Followed by dreadful New England and the even worse Raiders.

The Chargers should win all 3-if they can round up enough healthy players to put on the field.  But it is an unimpressive, beat up, struggling team, regardless of what Harbaugh says in his next tent revival press conference.

I fear this has become the real Chargers team.  Not enough solid players around a QB-who is taking a fierce pounding Sunday after Sunday.

You can call it Chargering if you want.  I will just say team in trouble.  And by the way, they play on a short work week-Thursday night against Denver.

And maybe the real words should be said now.  Playoff team that will be 1-and-done.

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“NFL–SEEING IS BELIEVING
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I bet you cannot believe some of what you are seeing in the NFL: Big games preview.

RAMS-49ers…LA started the season with some of its best players on injured reserve. Remember the (1-4) start? Now they are in the playoff race. Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford have willed this team to 7-wins in 9-games. The defense stood in there and slugged their way to a Thursday night win in the rain in San Francisco, and the Rams run game out-toughed Nick Bosa and friends. What a bounceback season.

CHARGERS-BUCS..I would say throwing contest, but Justin Herbert is really banged up, and despite his season (14TD-1Int) he cannot do it by himself. Here comes Baker Mayfield (28TD) to go against a beat up Chargers defense that played its heart out in the Kansas City loss

BILLS-DETROIT…Home field in the AFC is slipping away from the Bills. What a Josh Allen season, (3400APY) and an offense that has scored 49TDs this season. The Lions are giving up (318YPG) and Jared Goff has (25TD) and a (109R)

STEELERS-EAGLES..How can Pittsburgh stay in the game? I don’t know, but if they do, it will because the defense causes Jalen Hurts-Saquon Barkley to give the ball up. Philadelphia has an offense marching (371YPG) and the choking defense (284YPG). Pittsburgh with TJ Watt and friends makes things happen (28-takeaways..32-sacks) but it does not seem to be enough.

MIAMI-HOUSTON..Tua Tagovailoa is hot (107QB rating)..the Texans are not, having lost 2-of-3.

GREEN BAY-SEATTLE..Jordan Love has an offense cooking (396YPG) but the Seahawks Geno Smith is having a lifetime year (3700APY) with an offense averaging (349YPG)

Enjoy it because each of those games is huge as games tick away on the season schedule

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“NFL TO TOBACCO ROAD”
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The Hoodie to Chapel Hill !
Say what?

Yes, that is what my message is to you at this hour.

Bill Belichick is back in football, but not the NFL.  He will have his mail sent to a new mailing address:  North Carolina Tar Heels, c/o ACC, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Can you say unconventional?  Maybe.
Can you say Bizarre? Definitely
Can you say successful?  Maybe
Can you say risk-gamble-failure?  Yeah that too.

Belichick is beyond intelligent.  I interviewed him 3-times in my NFL career and I found him dynamic to talk to about many things football.  Not many things related to the New England Patriots or Tom Brady specifically.

But he was big on his opinions on other things, including football philosophies, college football, the Xs-Os of playbooks, trends and more.  And yes like Woody Hayes, lots of thoughts on World Wars and Military history.

If I had to deal with him daily like those beat writers of the Boston Globe or Herald-American, or talkshow radio, I would find him dull, condescending, and tiring.  His answers-non answers would make the game not much fun to cover.

But his scoreboard does not lie.  The 333-career wins.  The 6-Super Bowls.  Of course his track record of operating on the fringe of right-vs-wrong (Spygate-Deflategate) are also part of his resume.

Pick any segment of his stay in New England and you find success.  Tom Brady and his development.  His ability to teach a most unique brand of defense.  His ability to acquire role-playing veterans (Rodney Harrison-Junior Seau-Mike Vrabel), who became stars in his system.  And his risk taking success story with players with bad track records (Corey Dillon-Randy Moss) who hit it big for a short time there, are all part of his track record.

He created assistant coaching legends too.

But in the end, once Brady left, Belichick’s magic ended too.  The draft pick failures grew, there was no QB in waiting and now there seems to be resentment from the man who gave him all that power, Robert Kraft.

The fact post-Tom Brady football has seen what Belichick left behind go (7-23) with little hope of improvement, has put a shadow over his successes on the field in its heyday.

His post Patriots career has been fun.  His podcasts and TV appearances have been full of great stories, old school football assessments, and modern day statements about players, systems and the state of the game.

Why North Carolina?  The landscape has changed in college football.  The NIL-Transfer Portal and Player’s Rights Lawsuits have flipped it from a great game to big time business.

North Carolina, the basketball school, wants its new leader to make it a raging success football school too.

They trust Belichick to bring in his assistants from the NFL, and create an infrastructure for the business of football that puts the Tar Heels on an even floor with all the other super powers.  That will be a challenge.  He is bringing longtime NFL Exec Mike Lombardi to be his GM of operations.

But if you view the electricity of what Coach Prime has created in two falls at Colorado, maybe you say if Deion Sanders can do it his way in Boulder, Coach Bill can do it his way in Chapel Hill.  Though I don’t think he will wear Cowboy Hats, Sun glasses, or bling on the sidelines.

He will have to deal with Big Boosters and more with a national network of media that might not accept his sullen way of answers-non answers, closed practices and all he did with the Patriots.  Add in recruiting, NCAA rules, tampering, limited on field practice time, and the fact the roster you sign is the roster you have all year.

This will be a storyline to follow right from the start.  His world is about to change.  North Carolina football hopes its world will too.

His closest friend, Nick Saban, walked away from the game last year, in dislike of the modern landscape of what the game flipped into.

Can old school handle the new world of college athletics?  Going to be fun to follow.

The Hoodie in Chapel Hill.  Wow..what we have ahead of us.  They gave him a (5Y-50M) deal to take the Tar Heels to a different level.

Just one other question?  Is Tom Brady coming with him at quarterback?

Bill Belichick at North Carolina.  Like the TV soap opera, ‘As the World Turns’
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“PADRES FANS-DON’T DO THIS….YET”
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Padres fans, rooting with their hearts at Petco Park during the season.
Now in off season, Padres fans worrying too much with their heads.

The Hot Stove League is rolling.
Padres fans are waiting for their team to make a deal.

Everyone knows the storylines at this hour.
The passing of Peter Seidler a year ago, changed the team’s spending pattern.

The Friars got to the playoffs with a reduced payroll of 170M.
But they have 7-name players, all due pay raises.
If the Padres wrote checks to all of them, the payroll would blow up to 210M.
Ownership won’t allow that to happen.

Rumors are everywhere, popular catalyst Jurickson Profar is gone.  Ha Seong-Kim will likely leave but might not play till June.

The price tag on 1st baseman-DH Luis Arraez is too steep for a singles hitter.

The team has yet to sign Dylan Cease and Michael King to 2025 deals, but both deserve big pay raises.

It appears Tanner Scott, setup guy, is gone, maybe to the Dodgers or Yankees.
Catcher Kyle Higashioka has gone to Texas.  The bench bunch (Solano-Peralta) are still out there but might want raises.

So AJ Preller is boxed into a corner.  Some guys will surely depart.  Replacing them will be a challenge.  God says you have to have a 25-man roster.  You wants World Series talent on that roster.

But now the rumor mill is working overtime.

Padres brass split about the true value of Arraez and his singles hitting-free swinging style.  Might he net you multiple players in the trade market?  But you create a hole in the batting order.

And now comes word, teams are calling the Padres about front of the rotation starter Dylan Cease and we now worry Preller’s hand may be forced to move an established starter for younger talent because of dollars.

You do those deals and the Padres no longer resemble anything close to the team that many viewed as a potential World Series team last summer.

The additional scary thing is this.  Front line pitching is coming off the free agent board at a fast rate, and the second level guys are disappearing.  Alarming though are the prices.  Max Fried and Blake Snell sign deals worth (36M) each.

That next level of pitchers are signing big number deals too.  Nathan Eovaldi went back to Texas for 25M.  Nick Martinez got 21 to stay with the Reds.

So you wonder if the Padres can actually afford, and convince, Jack Flaherty, Roki Sasaki, Sean Manaea, Andrew Heaney, Jose Quintana or Kyle Gibson to come here and at what price?

Will trade more the farm system to outbid others for the White Sox Garrett Crochet or the Marlins’ Jesus Luzardo or Sandy Alcantara?

If the Padres can’t pay whom they currently have, and have to trade them, how are they going to replace those who depart.  And how are you going to pay them

There are still names out there to go get  via trade or free agency.  So don’t hit a panic button yet.

But if they come back from these Winter Meetings trying to tell you they’ll be okay with a rotation that includes Randy Vazquez, Matt Waldron, Jhonny Brito or Adrian Morejon, then we will all reach for the red panic button.

You’d hate to think the Padres season would be over before it started.

Don’t do it yet, but the Panic Button is the red one in the upper right corner of the panel.  Hope we don’t have to use it.

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