I'll Take Generational Wealth for $200, Alex.

The Raiders got better, just not on the field

Thanks for reading The Dope.

---

About two years ago, the sports site The Athletic performed a deep dive into the Raiders’ finances a few years after they’d ditched Oakland for Las Vegas. The findings are secured behind a very tall paywall, but in a nutshell, the reporting demonstrated conclusively that the franchise is making tons more money playing in Strip-adjacent Allegiant Stadium than it ever did while grinding it out in the old Coliseum.

I mention this now because the Raiders still stink. This is a football finding, not a money finding. In terms of finances, the franchise is driving revenue at levels that neither current majority owner Mark Davis nor his founding father, Al, ever dreamed of. Forbes this summer set the Raiders’ value at $7.7 billion, placing them in the top 10 of all NFL properties.

But the football thing — woof. Heading into Thursday night’s tilt in Denver, the club is sitting on a 2-6 record in 74-year-old Pete Carroll’s first season as head coach/rescue squad leader. The Broncos are pretty good, so I’m guessing that we’ll be looking at a 2-7 Raiders squad come Friday morning.

In truth, the franchise’s first six years in Las Vegas (38-54, counting this partial season) bear remarkable resemblance to its final six years in Oakland (39-57). This is not a winning organization — except when it comes to profit.

---

---

We often use the trade deadline as a way to judge which teams are serious and which teams are just screwing around. (For the record, the Raiders did virtually nothing beyond shipping receiver Jakobi Meyers to Jacksonville, but given their record, that shouldn’t be surprising.)

The Colts are serious — and that’s instructive. An 8-9 team a year ago, they’ve sprung to life behind alleged Giants draft failure Daniel Jones at quarterback, and their acquisition of cornerback Sauce Gardner from the (terrible) Jets is going to bolster the defense of a 7-2 club that leads the AFC South but has plenty of tough games ahead.

If the Colts, then why not the Raiders? Fair question. One answer, honestly, lies in the profit. Mark Davis now drives so much non-Raiders revenue through Allegiant — concerts, Super Bowls, etc. — that he doesn’t have to field a winner in order to come out way ahead. Indianapolis, maybe not so much. That franchise needs some W’s in order to score consumer dollars.

The Eagles are serious — and lately, they always are. Philly added a pass-rusher and two defensive backs to the mix in a pure attempt to repeat as Super Bowl champions. This is an inspiring example of a franchise that accrues serious revenue (No. 6 on the Forbes list) and puts it right back into the product. These are golden days for Eagles fans: an ownership group and front office that are purely aligned to win.

And then there’s Dallas. The Cowboys added a top-level defensive tackle in Quinnen Williams, and they snagged a linebacker from Cincinnati at the deadline to shore up the defense some. But they gave up first- and second-round draft picks for Williams, and in some ways they’re still trying to compensate for having dealt Micah Parsons to the Packers before the season began. All in all, it’s meh.

In other news, Dallas owner Jerry Jones has pushed his valuation of the club to $13 billion — a record for any sports franchise, by Forbes’ reckoning. The Cowboys last appeared in the Super Bowl in 1996.

We’re not against profit. In fact, we love all the profit we can manage. But, you know, this is sports. We really do watch because we like to see teams try to win.

---

---