Raiderstation

Who is he, how he'll stack up against the AFC west, and what scheme will he run.

Sir Raider Duck, OMS wrote: Tue Feb 17, 2026 2:06 pm I was in the 7th grade. A week later, we won our third Super Bowl in less than a decade and our second in four seasons. And if you told me that I'd be 54 years old and we'd still be looking for #4, I'd have thought you were crazy.

Ok, I was nine. I was kind of an aviation nut job when I was a kid. Basically my room had football posters and airplane models everywhere.

Christmas 1983 my parents got me a GI Joe SkyStryker (basically an F-14 toy).
The movie "The Right Stuff" came out fall of 1983, loved the movie. Chuck Yeager's autobiography was another Christmas gift.
January 1984, Raiders win Super Bowl XVIII. Post game highlights are shown dedicating some of the program to Lyle Alzado. The Right Stuff theme song is the background music of the post game stuff.
Later that evening the pilot episode of Airwolf airs. I play Atari for about 20 minutes after the program before my mom yells at me to go to bed. Wear my Marcus Allen jersey (also a Christmas gift) to school the next day and talk shit to my buddies that are Seahawks fan, collect on a few bets (marbles were our currency).

Kind of stupid but also kind of a cool time to be a Gen Xer. It was the top of the world or so I thought...

Sorry, your post stirred up some good memories.

I’m especially interested to see how much more Leonard can get out of our DT rotation as i feel it was one of the position where we showed for forward momentum ind developing guys

We saw quite a bit of Tonka Hemingway towards the end of the season & we saw promise of a player who could be a very disruptive DT in what we did see.

The kid showed an explosive first step, quickness, good play recognition & an ability to make it into the backfield kinda of like a budget Aaron Donald

As for our other draft prospect Pegues we didn't see enough of him even though he showed some promise as an athletic NT in preseason guys his size at NT usually dont have the type of athleticism that he does

Not forgetting Jonah Laulu who kinda showed he could be a really good depth piece aswell

I could see it being one of the positions we stand firm at (maybe adding another NT at most) & try to develop what we have.

Toast wrote: Tue Feb 17, 2026 7:51 pm Ok, I was nine. I was kind of an aviation nut job when I was a kid. Basically my room had football posters and airplane models everywhere.

Christmas 1983 my parents got me a GI Joe SkyStryker (basically an F-14 toy).
The movie "The Right Stuff" came out fall of 1983, loved the movie. Chuck Yeager's autobiography was another Christmas gift.
January 1984, Raiders win Super Bowl XVIII. Post game highlights are shown dedicating some of the program to Lyle Alzado. The Right Stuff theme song is the background music of the post game stuff.
Later that evening the pilot episode of Airwolf airs. I play Atari for about 20 minutes after the program before my mom yells at me to go to bed. Wear my Marcus Allen jersey (also a Christmas gift) to school the next day and talk shit to my buddies that are Seahawks fan, collect on a few bets (marbles were our currency).

Kind of stupid but also kind of a cool time to be a Gen Xer. It was the top of the world or so I thought...

Sorry, your post stirred up some good memories.

We're close in age. I'll be 52 in July. I remember being that young, I collected all of the plastic tiny football helmets you could get out of the 25 cent vending machines. I would always put the Super Bowl match up helmets on top of the 250 pound console TV. Anyways, putting the Redskins and Raiders helmets up there kind of felt different. Growing up in nw Ohio, you were a Browns or maybe Lions fan.
My mom was an avid Steeler fan, my dad was a Chief fan and I fancied the Bengals as I had saw them play an exhibition hoops game against hometown University of Findlay a year or two prior. Needless to say, after watching that beat down
I became a Raider fan & never looked back

Toast wrote: Tue Feb 17, 2026 7:51 pm Ok, I was nine. I was kind of an aviation nut job when I was a kid. Basically my room had football posters and airplane models everywhere.

Christmas 1983 my parents got me a GI Joe SkyStryker (basically an F-14 toy).
The movie "The Right Stuff" came out fall of 1983, loved the movie. Chuck Yeager's autobiography was another Christmas gift.
January 1984, Raiders win Super Bowl XVIII. Post game highlights are shown dedicating some of the program to Lyle Alzado. The Right Stuff theme song is the background music of the post game stuff.
Later that evening the pilot episode of Airwolf airs. I play Atari for about 20 minutes after the program before my mom yells at me to go to bed. Wear my Marcus Allen jersey (also a Christmas gift) to school the next day and talk shit to my buddies that are Seahawks fan, collect on a few bets (marbles were our currency).

Kind of stupid but also kind of a cool time to be a Gen Xer. It was the top of the world or so I thought...

Sorry, your post stirred up some good memories.

I’m a little older than you (61) but I have similar memories of the early 80’s. My dad flew in the Air Force in the late 50’s and I was a bit of an aircraft geek too. Similarly I was gifted the Chuck Yeager book as well as Baa Baa Black Sheep by Gregory “Pappy” Boyington. Good days

Xramfan wrote: Sat Feb 21, 2026 8:30 am I’m a little older than you (61) but I have similar memories of the early 80’s. My dad flew in the Air Force in the late 50’s and I was a bit of an aircraft geek too. Similarly I was gifted the Chuck Yeager book as well as Baa Baa Black Sheep by Gregory “Pappy” Boyington. Good days

Boyington is actually from the PNW, which you probably knew. That generation in general were pretty much all bad asses.

Toast wrote: Sat Feb 21, 2026 11:05 am Boyington is actually from the PNW, which you probably knew. That generation in general were pretty much all bad asses.

Hayden or Rathdrum I think. I have relatives up there

Jimmy Stewart was a Badass with a capital B. Enlisted in WWII. Flew bombing missions in a Liberator over Germany. Rose from private to Brigadier General. And was the pilot of the plane in the movie, "Flight of the Phoenix".

Cruisin with Tooz wrote: Sat Feb 21, 2026 11:43 am Jimmy Stewart was a Badass with a capital B. Enlisted in WWII. Flew bombing missions in a Liberator over Germany. Rose from private to Brigadier General. And was the pilot of the plane in the movie, "Flight of the Phoenix".

And the Spirit of St. Louis

And Strategic Air Command.

We know that Jimmy was 6'4 because his Pooka was 6'3 1/2 and is described as just a bit shorter than Jimmy.

The debate is over, Jimmy was badass.

Attyla wrote: Sat Feb 21, 2026 4:49 pm We know that Jimmy was 6'4 because his Pooka was 6'3 1/2 and is described as just a bit shorter than Jimmy.

The debate is over, Jimmy was badass.

And he drank martinis.
BOSS!!!!

And he got Grace Kelly.

I dont like Leonard as our D Coordinator. Ill give him a chance but our defense kind of sucked. It got better last season but also fell apart completely at times. I think our offense will be good though once Mendoza gets acclimated and if our O-line can give Jeanty some time, so it should take some heat off the defense. I think our defense is almost an afterthought now.

rich72 wrote: Sat Feb 21, 2026 8:54 pm I dont like Leonard as our D Coordinator. Ill give him a chance but our defense kind of sucked. It got better last season but also fell apart completely at times. I think our offense will be good though once Mendoza gets acclimated and if our O-line can give Jeanty some time, so it should take some heat off the defense. I think our defense is almost an afterthought now.

Whew, I was worried that you were not going to give him a chance