NFL analyst makes solid point why Raiders are building the right way

This time of year most fanbases have hope and optimism. But much of that can be chalked up to good old fashioned faith unless you have some specific reasons to believe things are finally going to turn around. And in this case, for the Raiders, this may not just be the usual blind faith. But rather what we may be seeing is a front office that is finally doing things in a way that makes sense.

Trey Wingo took to his show today and expressed his optimism about the Raiders. The longtime NFL analyst went as far as to say he thinks there hasn't been this much reason for optimism with regard to the Silver & Black is probably a decade.

"The Raiders have been a team for a long time that have had their issues in how you construct a roster," said Wingo. "But I think there is optimism to me with they spent in free agency. And the didn't lose Maxx Crosby. I feel better about the Raiders now than maybe I have in a decade."

From there his co-host Kevin Clark went on to make some very interesting points and he did so by using the Tennessee Titans as a cautionary tale.

"The reason they're really smart which is, this is an example, with Tennessee last year. They let Cam Ward throw to nobody with a bad offensive line and a defense that couldn't get the ball back and hold serve," said Clark.

"What the Raiders are doing, Trey, which I find smart is they're not waiting a year and letting Fernando Mendoza get the crap knocked out of him. They're signing the most expensive center in history. . . to protect Fernando Mendoza and knows how to make the protection calls and protect the young quarterback. Upgrading in a bunch of different places, you already have Ashton Jeanty, you added to the defense, they're going to be able to get the ball back for him, so I like it a lot more than the what the Titans did last year which was letting a guy get the crap knocked out of him."

You don't get more aggressive than the Raiders did when they signed Tyler Linderbaum away from the Ravens. Linderbaum was paid some $9 million per season above what the previous highest paid center was making. Yeah, that's a lot. But if you can get past that and just look at a couple factors which make it irrelevant -- they had the league most cap money to spend, they will have a QB on his rookie contract, and none of the financial stuff matters more than what they are getting on the field from Linderbaum.

The one slight note I would have in what Clark said is the uncertainty that Linderbaum is going to be the cure to all the Raiders offensive line issues. If the issue simply was coaching and health, as some believe it was last season, then fine. Otherwise some help at right tackle would be smart.

I also am not sold that they have done enough on defense. Every level of the defense still needs addressing. We will no doubt see that in the draft, but that hasn't happened yet, so it's best not to discuss it as if the issues have already been solved.

This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: NFL analyst makes solid point why Raiders are building the right way