You certainly can't say the Oakland Raiders didn't try.
Armed with ample cap space - the second-most in the league - the Raiders entered this season's NFL free agency period with holes to fill and cash to burn.
Unfortunately, due to circumstances entirely beyond their control, the Raiders came away with little to show for their free agent courting efforts.
It was unlikely the perennially moribund Oakland franchise would be able to reverse their fortunes in one offseason, but did the numerous swings and misses in free agency this year already doom the Raiders 2015 NFL season?
"The problem with the Raiders isn't what they accomplished -- it's what they didn't," writes Marc Sessler of NFL.com. "Armed with a mountain of cap space, general manager Reggie McKenzie targeted a slew of big names but couldn't lure any to Oakland. Ndamukong Suh, Randall Cobb, Jeremy Maclin, Julius Thomas and DeMarco Murray all chose to sign elsewhere."
The players the Raiders were able to land seem like quality assets added at fairly reasonable prices, but it's unlikely to be enough to alter the organizations downward course.
"Center Rodney Hudson was a good get and Michael Crabtree, at least, didn't cost much. Still, the Trent Richardson signing symbolizes too many of Oakland's free-agent additions: Low-level patches when the Raiders desperately needed star power," Sessler writes.
New Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio clearly wanted to add weapons for Carr on offense and Crabtree and Richardson are, presumably, just that. Hudson, however, will likely prove to be the biggest asset to Carr moving forward - there's nothing quite like an athletic, intelligent center to make a young franchise quarterback feel all warm and fuzzy inside - while Crabtree and Richardson are likely placeholders - talented placeholders, of course - to whomever Del Rio and GM Reggie McKenzie are able to add in the 2015 NFL Draft.
Therein lies the greatest problem, though - the misses in free agency hamper the team in both the short and long-term.
Short-term, the Raiders won't be as good as they otherwise would have been had they been able to add a player like Suh to the defensive line or Cobb to the receiving corps.
In the long-term, the inability to plug holes in free agency means the Raiders have to place a greater emphasis on finding contributors in the draft and may not be able to give some of their selections the time they truly need to develop before being thrown into the NFL fire.
While there's every possibility that a guy like Latavius Murray will suddenly take a big leap forward next year, meaning missing out on DeMarco Murray will hurt much less and making the addition of Richardson seem even more unnecessary, the Raiders simply can't bank on something like that happening and risk opening themselves up to the issues that come with having too-few high-caliber players at too many important spots.
