The Raiders gave Kelechi Osemele the largest contract ever for a guard, and Osemele, at least, has no doubt he's worth it. The important thing is whether his signing pays off for Latavius Murray and Oakland's moribund running game.
“I come from a place where we believe in running the ball, and it’s good to be with another organization where that seems to be the goal with what they want to do,” Osemele says. That story can be found at this link from the team website.
Osemele has started for the Ravens for the last four years, and although 2015 didn't show it, they've been better running the ball than Oakland over that span. In those four seasons, Oakland had a bottom-5 rushing offense three times. Baltimore had a top-11 group in two of those four seasons.
Lot of components to a successful ground game, and Baltimore didn't have one last season even with Osemele. But it looks promising that the blocking will be better this year for Murray. And probably worse for whoever the Ravens settle on from their multitude of running backs.
Team rushing rankings over the last four seasons, sorted by the most recent, are shown below.
TEAM RUSHING RANKS, 2012-2015 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Team | 12 Rk | 13 Rk | 14 Rk | 15 Rk |
Buffalo | 6 | 2 | 25 | 1 |
Carolina | 9 | 11 | 7 | 2 |
Seattle | 3 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
Minnesota | 2 | 8 | 14 | 4 |
Tampa Bay | 15 | 22 | 29 | 5 |
Kansas City | 5 | 10 | 10 | 6 |
St. Louis | 19 | 19 | 20 | 7 |
Arizona | 32 | 23 | 31 | 8 |
Dallas | 31 | 24 | 2 | 9 |
NY Jets | 12 | 6 | 3 | 10 |
Chicago | 10 | 16 | 27 | 11 |
Green Bay | 20 | 7 | 11 | 12 |
Cincinnati | 18 | 18 | 6 | 13 |
Philadelphia | 13 | 1 | 9 | 14 |
Houston | 8 | 20 | 5 | 15 |
Pittsburgh | 26 | 27 | 16 | 16 |
Denver | 16 | 15 | 15 | 17 |
NY Giants | 14 | 29 | 23 | 18 |
Atlanta | 29 | 32 | 24 | 19 |
Washington | 1 | 5 | 19 | 20 |
San Francisco | 4 | 3 | 4 | 21 |
Cleveland | 24 | 28 | 17 | 22 |
Miami | 17 | 26 | 12 | 23 |
New Orleans | 25 | 25 | 13 | 24 |
Tennessee | 21 | 14 | 26 | 25 |
Baltimore | 11 | 30 | 8 | 26 |
Jacksonville | 30 | 31 | 21 | 27 |
Oakland | 28 | 12 | 32 | 28 |
Indianapolis | 22 | 21 | 22 | 29 |
New England | 7 | 9 | 18 | 30 |
San Diego | 27 | 13 | 30 | 31 |
Detroit | 23 | 17 | 28 | 32 |
--Andy Richardson