Raiders mailbag: Fans ask questions about trade deadline

Coming off an embarrassing loss to the Bears, the Raiders travel to Detroit to play the Lions on “Monday Night Football.” Between trying to get back on track and the trade deadline Tuesday, fans have plenty of anxiety and questions.

Here is a sampling of what arrived in this week’s mailbag:

Matt Berger (@matt_berger): Pending the outcome of the Monday night game against the Detroit Lions, do you see the Raiders being buyers or sellers at the Tuesday trade deadline? If buyers, who do they target?

Vincent Bonsignore: Don’t necessarily advocate pinning plans of attack on the outcome of one game, but a win over the Lions could alter some thinking. But the Raiders should probably pick a lane at this point and focus their attention on the bigger picture rather than the immediate. They have simultaneously tried to be competitive and rebuild, and it’s overdue that they focus on the latter and start thinking about trading players for draft assets.

Travis Hall (@THall86): Why draft eight players if five are inactive constantly? Why not see what we have in the youth, especially when, during some games, the entire team was lacking fire and overall interest?

VB: Important to keep in mind that nine rookies making the roster is significant. Of them, four are either starting or in positional rotations. The others, including quarterback Aidan O’Connell, are on developmental tracks while playing behind veteran players. That includes a linebacking and safety room playing good football. The question becomes, who are you willing to sit of the positions playing well right now?

Euro Tye (@EuroTye): Is Hunter Renfrow’s allegiance to Derek Carr why the Raiders are trying to trade him?

VB: No.

R8510 (@RaiderStan): The team has gone cold. I’m wondering why the players even come out of the locker room. But then I remember they’re 3-4, and it’s not so bad. Is all hope lost for the season?

VB: It depends on what you’re hopeful of. The playoffs? Hope is clearly fading. On the other hand, something positive still can be salvaged relative to the development of younger players.

Lightning McQueen (@TMCsean14): How many more embarrassing losses until coach Josh McDaniels is fired?

VB: Hard to imagine any major changes during the season, but a few more losses like the one against the Bears could change that thinking. And clearly it might change the plans for the offseason.

Ed Helinski (@MrEd315): How dysfunctional are the Raiders? Just seems as if they can’t get things right.

VB: From a business perspective, the Raiders are doing incredibly well. And that will only get better as more revenue becomes freed up to invest in the team. The football side is playing catch-up, but nothing that a couple of good draft classes and offseasons and the development of the younger players can’t fix. Finding their long-term quarterback is of utmost importance.

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on X.