POSTED 11:48 p.m. EDT, July 4, 2006

PFT PRESEASON POWER RANKINGS:  NO. 29

Another day in July, another rung up the ladder for the PFT Preseason Power Rankings.

Good news for today's entry -- you're in the top 30.  Bad news -- just barely.

The Oakland Raiders.

In hiring Art Shell to return as the team's head coach, owner Al Davis vowed to bring back the glory of Raider teams past.  But for the same reasons that league insiders questioned Joe Gibbs' return to the Redskins after more than a decade away from the game, Shell's second stint with the Raiders comes too long after the first.  And he has never come close to meriting comparisons to Gibbs.

Though Shell has been off of the sidelines for only five years, there's a big difference between being a position coach and running the show, and the last time Shell served as field boss was 1994, the second season of the current free agency/salary cap system.

His offensive coordinator, Tom Walsh, has been out of the game even longer, and his defensive coordinator, Rob Ryan, has presided over the 30th and 27th units in his first two years with the team.

As to the roster of players, the offseason has been somewhat less eventful for the Raiders.  And that's not a good thing.  For a team with plenty of weaknesses, the lineup has gotten weaker.

First, quarterback Kerry Collins was jettisoned, and he'll be replaced by Aaron Brooks, a one-time flash-in-the-pan whose career has been in slow decline since 2002.  The most telling stat?  After leading the Saints to the playoffs in his first year with the team, Brooks never managed to get them back there in five tries.  Not once.

The other free-agency additions were cornerback Tyrone Poole, cornerback Duane Starks, defensive end Lance Johnstone, and tight end O.J. Santiago, who has been out of the league for two seasons.  Gone are Collins, defensive tackle Ted Washington, cornerback Charles Woodson, guard Ron Stone, cornerback Denard Walker, and safety Derrick Gibson.  (Gibson later re-signed with the team, getting a one-year, $585,000 deal.)

It doesn't take an NFL scout -- or Jeremy Green -- to figure out that the Raiders have regressed.

The Raiders strengthened the secondary by taking Michael Huff with the seventh overall pick in the draft, but we're guessing that they would have preferred to snag either Vince Young or A.J. Hawk instead.

So this team, in our view, needs plenty of help on both sides of the ball, and we simply don't see major improvements coming in 2006.  Brooks is more mobile than Collins, which might buy him some time once the protection inevitably breaks down.  But Brooks is still Brooks -- a tease who'll wow the crowd one minute and throw the game-turning interception the next.

We're not saying that the Raiders won't eventually get back to playing Raider football.  But it's a loooong road; even though this team wears silver and black, they're gonna play like milk and cookies in 2006.

Now for the fantasy grades.

Quarterback:  Brooks threw 13 touchdowns and 17 picks before getting benched in 2005.  And the overall talent of his old offense isn't much better than the overall talent of his new one.  We think it will be a mess for him in Oakland.  Until he gets benched.  So he gets a D.  (And it might be a good idea to throw a late-round pick on Andrew Walter, since he could have the job before the end of the season.  Of course, he won't fare much better this year.)

Running back:  In his first season as a featured back, LaMont Jordan rushed for 1,025 yards and nine touchdowns.  We'll give him a solid B. 

Wide receiver:  The Raiders' biggest question mark from a fantasy perspective is Randy Moss.  Moss managed only 1,005 yards and eight touchdowns in 2005, following an injury-plagued 2004 in which his catches and yards were way down but he still scored 13 times.  He misses Daunte Culpepper more than he'll ever admit, and with Aaron Brooks slated to be the guy that throws him the ball, he's a B for 2006.  Last year, Jerry Porter didn't take advantage of all the single coverage that he saw with Moss on the field, finishing with 949 yards and five touchdowns.  For his career, Porter has never had more than 1,000 yards or double-digit touchdowns.  He falls somewhere in the amorphous gulf between B- and C+.

Tight end:  We've got some tackles we'd recommend before any of the tight ends on this team's roster.  Where have you gone, Dave Casper?

Defense:  Not unless there are 28 teams in your league and you haven't picked a squad by the time the last pick in the last round comes around.

Kicker:  Sebastian Janikowski has plenty of name recognition, which means that there inevitably will be someone in each league who blurts out "he's good, isn't he?" when the time comes to start picking kickers.  But the discerning fantasy owner knows that Janikowski ranked 26th in scoring among kickers in 2005.  There's no reason to believe he'll get more chances in 2006, and ten missed field goals last year doesn't help, either.  Give him an F.  Or a G.  (As in GHB.)