{"id":25276,"date":"2017-07-28T08:20:49","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T12:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=25276"},"modified":"2021-03-11T21:53:26","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T02:53:26","slug":"oakland-raiders-released-austin-howard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2017\/07\/28\/oakland-raiders-released-austin-howard\/","title":{"rendered":"The Oakland Raiders Have Released Austin Howard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After three years with the Oakland Raiders, right tackle <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/H\/HowaAu20.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Austin Howard<\/a> has finally been released. Despite being a member of arguably the best offensive line in the NFL, Howard was considered by many to be the weak link, hence Oakland making offensive linemen a subpriority this off-season.<\/p>\n<h2>The Oakland Raiders Have Released Austin Howard<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">OAKLAND!!! A lifetime of memories have been made these past three years, and I am grateful for\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1AqbM3WaRU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/1AqbM3WaRU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Austin Howard (@AustinHoward68) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AustinHoward68\/status\/890838952311013376\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 28, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Nobody in the NFL gave up fewer sacks than the Oakland Raiders last year. When it was all said and done, silver and black quarterbacks <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/CarrDe02.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Derek Carr<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/McGlMa01.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt McGloin<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/CookCo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Connor Cook<\/a> were only brought down with the ball 18 times, that&#8217;s three fewer than Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, Ben Roethlisbger. And that&#8217;s where the real meat of the issue lies.<\/p>\n<p>Raider quarterbacks were only sacked 18 times. But <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/O\/OsemKe00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kelechi Osemele<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/J\/JackGa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gabe Jackson<\/a> didn&#8217;t give up a single sack all year. Left tackle <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/P\/PennDo20.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Donald Penn<\/a> didn&#8217;t give up a sack until the 16th week of the season. Considering how great <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/H\/HudsRo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rodney Hudson<\/a> is, and that Carr gave up a few sacks by scrambling, a name is conspicuous by absence.<\/p>\n<p>Austin Howard was the weakest link on a great offensive line, and with the signing of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/N\/NewhMa20.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marshall Newhouse<\/a>, the development of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/A\/AlexVa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vadal Alexander<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/K\/KirkDe01.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Denver Kirkland<\/a>, and the drafting of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/david-sharpe-1.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David Sharpe<\/a> and Jylan Ware, the Raiders were looking to make him expendable. This move comes mere hours after the Raiders announced that they were also releasing long-time special teams ace, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=JoneTa00,JoneTa01&amp;search=Taiwan+Jones&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Taiwan Jones<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>With more <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/2017\/06\/20\/five-oakland-raider-veterans-risk\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">cuts to come<\/a>, what are Oakland&#8217;s intentions? Are they making cap space so they can sign a veteran inside linebacker or is this part of the long-term scheme to keep Oakland&#8217;s nucleus intact? Or, is this just Oakland trimming the fat as they head into training camp?<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/628945098\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.666667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/628945098?et=TC8sZy7BSxxfkXUAMjNWxA&amp;tld=com&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=PvO3DBF3vMlnCXXe9pMe9MRnQj8Y51YLsauHtK74bYw=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Oakland Raiders have released offensive lineman, Austin Howard after three years with the team as their starting right tackle. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1347,"featured_media":25277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,17],"tags":[1386,1766,326,7737,1387],"class_list":["post-25276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-raiders","tag-donald-penn","tag-gabe-jackson","tag-kelechi-osemele","tag-oakland-raiders-news","tag-rodney-hudson"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1347"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}