Only for Guild Members » Up to this point the Raiders were making smart

Trayvon Mullen Oakland Raiders Jersey , conservative moves. The deal for Antonio Brown fits in nicely."Making a trade for arguably the best receiver in the NFL may seem like anything but conservative. And you could argue that it isn’t if you like. But unless you’re really looking for negatives, it’s hard to criticize how the Raiders went about acquiring Antonio Brown.Friday, the team made several moves to retain key players. They weren’t flashy, but necessary. They placed round two tenders on starting cornerback Daryl Worley and receiving scat back, Jalen Richard. They also held onto safety and special teams maven Erik Harris on a 2-year deal. Raiders fans: Subscribe to the Silver and Black Pride podcastThose deals along with the previous one to re-sign reserve guard Denzelle Good on a one-year deal are under-the-radar smart moves that keep the necessary pieces in place.Another necessity for the immediate hopeful improvement of this team was to get Derek Carr a weapon. The big name out there — and it’s a very big one — was Antonio Brown, who was loudly demanding a trade from the Steelers and for a lot of guaranteed money to come with that.Jon Gruden is not known for having a poker face. He wears his emotions all over his face, hence the nickname ‘Chucky’. It was no secret he loved Antonio Brown and no secret to the Steelers he wanted to make a trade for him. And after some of the trades he has made since taking over the Raiders last year, there was reason to worry he would get overzealous and sell the farm for Brown.He didn’t.The Steelers were said to be asking for a first round pick. That would suggest maybe the Raiders’ picks at 24 and 27 overall were in play. They may have even been perfectly fine with the Raiders pick at 35 at the top of the second. But any of those picks should have been off limits in this deal. Anything higher than their pick at 66 overall in the third round would be too much, even for a player as talented as Brown.After all, he is about to turn 31, has raised some serious concerns about his character with the way he has handled his trade demands this offseason, and has made no bones about how much money he would like to be paid and how he won’t settle for ‘unguarantees.’In the end, the Raiders got Brown for that pick at 66th overall in the third round and pick 141 in the fifth round. That’s a good deal. They stood their ground on not giving up their pick at 35 and they won.As for the salary, reports were that Brown was wanting to get a raise to make him the highest paid receiver in football. He would have had to get a deal that averaged over $18 million to surpass Odell Beckham Jr. What he got was no additional years on the three years he had left in his contract with the Steelers, but with $30 million in guarantees where he had none and a total of $50 million. That puts his average at $16.7 million per season, which is actually slightly less than what he was averaging, but additional money for him overall.Those guarantees though. They’re important. Some believe NFL players shouldn’t have to sign contracts with so much non-guaranteed money. It ends up making contracts one-sided in the team’s favor. But Brown wasn’t having it. He wanted his guarantees, and you can’t blame him for that. And the Raiders didn’t make him the highest paid receiver in football, so they got that.The Raiders get a true number one at 31 years old who has at least two elite years left in him for two mid round picks and Brown gets security. Oh, and Derek Carr gets easily the best receiver he’s ever had in his life catching passes from him. And everyone’s happy. DENVER (AP) — Ugly wins are a thing of beauty in Denver, where the Broncos learned all their hard lessons last year in the dreariness of defeat.“We’re sitting here 2-0 but we’re struggling,” Emmanuel Sanders after the Broncos eked out a 20-19 win over Oakland on Sunday on Brandon McManus‘ 36-yard field goal with 6 seconds left.It was their only lead on a sweltering afternoon in which the temperature at kickoff was a record 92 degrees.The Broncos, who overcame a 12-point second-half deficit, hadn’t opened a season with back-to-back fourth-quarter comebacks since 2007. Last week, they rallied past Seattle 27-24 in Case Keenum’s Denver debut.“It does feel good to win the hard-fought games,” Sanders said. “But I can’t wait until we can win one of those smooth games. But we’re going to keep pushing. I’m going to wake up in the morning and stretch my arms and go, ‘Ahh. It feels good to be 2-0.'”Especially after going 5-11 last year.It was for times like these that Broncos general manager John Elway ditched his stopwatch drafts in April in favor of players who had been captains in college and left school with degrees in hand.“One thing we learned last year when you’re 5-11 and you’re in a losing streak, you need that maturity and that leadership to get things turned around Cheap Trayvon Mullen Jersey ,” Elway said last spring.Royce Freeman scored on a 1-yard run and fellow rookies Bradley Chubb and Josey Jewell had key stops, but the biggest contributions came from Tim Patrick, a receiver who spent his rookie season on Denver’s practice squad in 2017, and undrafted rookie Phillip Lindsay, a hometown hero who starred at the University of Colorado.Patrick’s first NFL catch was a doozy: an 18-yarder that set up the winning field goal . And all Lindsay did was make history Sunday.He became the first undrafted player in league history to top 100 yards from scrimmage in his first two games. He followed a 103-yard debut with a 111-yard performance that included 14 rushes for 107 yards.Other takeaways from the game, which marked the 350th win in Broncos owner Pat Bowlen’s tenure:CARR REVVS UP: Derek Carr was on target all afternoon, completing 29 of 32 passes for 288 yards and a touchdown. His 90.6 completion percentage is the best mark in franchise history — with a minimum of 20 attempts — topping the record of 89.5 set by Rich Gannon on Nov. 11, 2002, in Denver.“He was great. Very accurate in getting us the ball. Made a lot of plays,” said receiver Amari Cooper, who caught 10 passes for 116 yards four days after coach Jon Gruden gave Carr grief for not finding Cooper more in Week 1.MILLER MAGICThe Raiders protected rookie left tackle Kolton Miller by having Carr get rid of the ball quick, keeping Von Miller to one sack a week after he destroyed Seattle’s game plan with four quarterback hits, three sacks, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.Miller’s day could have been very similar to the Seahawks game had teammate Todd Davis not been whistled for a holding call that negated Miller’s strip sack and Domata Peko’s fumble recovery at the Oakland 20-yard line in the first half.“I had Derek Carr, it was one of the few plays that he held the ball,” said Miller, who later had a sack that counted. “I was able to get in and get the sack. And the forced fumble. And we recovered it. But we had to go back out because Todd was doing the Viennese waltz with whoever it was out there.”SEEING REDRookie Courtland Sutton had a 42-yard catch overturned after Gruden threw his red challenge flag. He also thought he had come down with a 21-yard TD catch, but Broncos coach Vance Joseph lost his challenge when the officials confirmed Sutton’s left foot slipped out of bounds just before his right knee hit inbounds.So, Sutton finished with a single catch for 9 yards.“I don’t know. I thought Courtland’s touchdown was a touchdown,” Joseph said. “Obviously, I challenged it. The second catch, I guess he didn’t finish the catch. We’ll figure it out. It’s a tough game to officiate. There are so many rules right now and hopefully it’s fair on both sides.”BLOCKED KICKOne of the few things that went right for Denver in a dismal first half was Shaq Barrett’s block of Mike Nugent’s extra point, leaving the Raiders ahead 12-0 at the half.“Who knew that would be huge?” Keenum asked.Barrett did, that’s who.“Coaches always say you never know what play can end up being a game-winning play,” Barrett said. “That’s why you’ve just got to play every play like that. When I’m out there, that’s what I’m trying to do.”