The obligatory Raiders update that only two people care about

By request of Jesse Bryan, here's an update on what's happening in the crazier part of the great north bay.

The Raiders have essentially swapped Jake Grove for Samson Satele. ESPN the Magazine, which by the way is a lot of glossy pages without a lot of content, is high on Jake Grove, but I don't see it. He's not a bad center, but he's injury prone and the big knock on him was that he wasn't very strong. He had a good year last year, but he always struggled against bigger nose tackles (Jamal Williams ate him alive last season) and there's a possibility that his numbers were inflated by facing extremely weak D-lines in Denver and KC twice a year. Samson Satele is 24 and has two years of experience already. He's a good fit for the zone blocking system the Raiders employ and he's cheaper than Grove. Player salaries are going to continue to be a bigger part of teams' planning now that the salary cap will most likely be out after this year.

Look at this deal another way. The Raiders let Grove go, saved money and then traded a sixth round pick for his replacement, a starter on a division champ last year. That's a great deal.

Belated condolences to the family of Marquis Cooper, Corey Smith and Will Bleakley.

Cornell Green was arrested for hitting the mother of his children with a mop handle. Idiot.

Circle your calendars. The Raiders are playing on Thanksgiving for the first time in 39 years. They also get a Monday Night Football home opener against the Chargers. That could be ugly.

Contrary to popular belief, the Raiders never inquired about Terrell Owens and the Buffalo Bills, a team nobody picked to sign him, signed him. And this is something I really hate about the sports media. Whenever someone who's a talented malcontent is out on the market, the assumption is always that the Raiders will sign him. Why is that? They've passed on a number of gifted assholes in the past. But people like Chris Mortensen will continue to further these rumors without any basis for it. Mort is especially bad about this because he's admitted in the past that he doesn't bother contacting the Raiders for their side of the story.

The Raiders have actually been pretty quiet in free agency this year. They took care of their own (Nnamdi Asomugha and Chris Johnson's deals) and got some bargains to shore up areas of needs (Khalif Barnes, Samson Satele). They cut Gibril Wilson a bit prematurely, but he wasn't worth the money. Plus, now they need a safety so Al can draft his favorite position in the draft. Ugh.

Speaking of the draft, here's what Al and Tom should be looking at: Receiver, Defensive Line, Offensive Line, Linebacker, and then maybe Safety. There's a few really good receivers in the first round. Crabtree is going to be great. He's got great hands, great vision and incredible athleticism. Percy Harvin, if he stays healthy, is by far the most explosive receiver of the last few years. Forget the 40 times. The guy is what they call "football fast," meaning he's quick on the field. Even Jeremy Maclin, who I'm not as high on, has the potential to be very good. He's like a Harvin-lite, quick, elusive and deceptively strong.