Raider Nation is hurting Tuesday night after losing their most consistent offensive player in Zach Miller.
It has to hurt worse for Al Davis because his former coach Tom Cable was instrumental in bringing Miller to Seattle.
“Coach Cable gave me a call Saturday morning and saw I wasn’t signed yet, kind of feeling the Raiders would have done it by then,” Miller told Jerry McDonald of the Oakland Tribune. “He said, ‘We want you here and I’m going to make a push to get you here.’
“I took a visit, and my wife and I just loved it. I’m still kind of blown away.”
We don’t blame him. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Miller got $17 million guaranteed and $34 million over the next five years. We heard that Miller got an attractive offer from Oakland before the lockout and they apparently thought they were close to a deal as recently as Tuesday.
Instead, Oakland chose to spend huge dollars on Stanford Routt, Kamerion Wimbley, and Richard Seymour before locking Miller up. They lost a leader who at 25 years old was just hitting his prime. It sounds like Miller wanted to stay, but Oakland took too long.
“When I was going into the last year of my rookie deal I was hoping to get extended and get a longterm contract and it didn’t happen. Then the season ended and I was expecting a deal and it didn’t happen either. Throughout the process I was expecting it and it just never happened,” Miller said.
After watching the Raiders overpay their own guys for years, we expected it too. Miller actually deserved the money.
