Fargas, who rushed for 3,369 yards and 10 touchdowns during his seven seasons in Oakland, reportedly failed a physical and was released to create more playing time for former first-round draft pick Darren McFaddin and Michael Bush. The move also saved the team from having to shell out a $1.7 million roster bonus that was due Fargas this month.

Fargas, whose best season came in 2007 when he rushed for 1,009 yards and four TDs, earned the respect of players and coaches alike with his work ethic and willingness to give up his body for the good of the team. Fargas’ willingness to take a hit also worked against him, as injuries were a common theme throughout his days with the Raiders.

With Fargas out of the picture, Oakland is now free to deploy its Thunder (Bush) and Lightning (McFadden) running tandem full-time on opposing defenses. While Bush has shown that he can be a battering ram in the backfield, the big question is whether or not McFadden can 1) stay healthy enough to remain on the field for any great length and 2) can be a factor when he’s out there.

McFadden’s first two NFL seasons, during which injuries cost him seven games, yielded an underwhelming total of 856 yards and 5 TDs to go along with 50 receptions for 530 yards. Bush’s first two seasons have produced a total of 1,010 yards and 6 TDs rushing as well as 36 catches for 267 yards in 31 games. Bush was Oakland’s leading rusher in 2009 with 589 yards in 123 attempts (an impressive 4.8 yards per carry).

Again, their combined effectiveness will depend largely on the contributions the Raiders receive from the quarterback position. In 2009, JaMarcus Russell’s shoddy play often forced the Raiders to abandon the run and take to the air with poor results. Things opened up offensively when Bruce Gradkowski replaced Russell as the team’s starter, and the 1-2 McFadden-Bush punch could be dynamite if Gradkowski is given the reins to the offense from start to finish.

On Wednesday, it was reported in various media outlets that Oakland had tendered one-year contract offers to quarterback Bruce Gradkowski, Pro Bowl long-snapper Jon Condo and linebackers Kirk Morrison, Thomas Howard and Ricky Brown.

Excluding the draft, tendering Gradkowski was priority No. 1 for the Raiders. Though head coach Tom Cable told reporters at the NFL Combine last weekend that there would be open competition for the team’s starting quarterback job next season, it’s no secret that he favors the fiery Gradkowski, who performed well as a starter last season before succumbing to injury, over JaMarcus Russell, who performed the polar opposite of well.

The Raiders tendered Gradkowski, who has made it clear that returning to Oakland is his wish, a second-round level, which will pay him $1,759,000 in 2010 if he chooses to sign. Our guess is that he will lend his John Hancock to the deal, then bury Russell during “competition” time and provide stability to the a position that has been the biggest issue for the team, despite its overall defensive and pass-blocking shortcomings, since Rich Gannon and friends left town.

Oakland might have tipped its draft hand with its original-round tender to Morrison, the team’s leading tackler the past five seasons. With the tender designation, the Raiders are now on the hook for 110% of his 2009 salary, which would be roughly $2.5 million in 2010.

The catch is that Morrison can be plucked away by another team for the price of a third-round draft pick, which is a clear indication that losing the middle linebacker isn’t of any great concern to the Raiders. It also indicates that versatile, run-stuffying Alabama middle linebacker Rolando McClain could be Oakland’s targeted player with the No. 8 overall pick come draft day.

We here at the Radar have made impassioned pleas for the organization to break the habit of going with first-round reaches (hello, Darrius Heyward-Bey) and grab a sure thing, and they don’t come any surer than McClain, who could turn a longtime weakness (run defense) into a strength almost overnight. The kid is fast, he’s football savvy, never out of position and he’s a proven winner. There is absolutely nothing not to like here, and every reason to roll out the Silver and Black carpet.

NO!

I didn’t want Owens wearing silver and black during his prime, when even then his me-first act wore thin, and I certainly don’t want him returning to the Bay Area in his NFL golden years when his me-first act is all he has left.

The fear, of course, is that now that Owens is back on the market, Raiders owner Al Davis will attempt to make T.O. the new, and not necessarily improved, version of Javon Walker. I’d rather see, gulp, JaMarcus Russell, Bruce Gradkowski or Yosemite Sam flinging balls at Darrius Heyward-Bey than watch Owens rant and rave on the sideline when, Heaven forbid, someone else is thrown the ball (the nerve!) and then smile after dropping a potential game-changing third-down pass, a frequent occurrence during a 14-year NFL career that will one day land him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Things are bad enough in Oakland these days. Please, Mr. Davis, draft Alabama middle linebacker Rolando McClain, add Julius Peppers if you have money left to burn (run on us now!), just don’t bring Owens, a proven cancer to team chemistry, into the fold.

Say no to T.O.

Seymour’s contract is guaranteed to pay him at least $12.398 — the average salary earned in 2009 by the league’s top five highest-paid DEs. Seymour could earn more if the average for next season is greater than that come April 15. Seymour made roughly $3.7 million a season ago.

The move hardly comes as a surprise, given that Oakland dealt a 2011 first-round pick to the Patriots to plug Seymour, 30, into their defense just before the start of the 2009 season.

Seymour made two sacks in his Oakland debut last year against the Chargers, but had just two more in the team’s remaining 15 games.

The sixth overall pick in the 2001 draft was unable to solidify Oakland’s shoddy run defense, which has ranked among the league’s worst going on a decade now. The Raiders, who finished 5-11 for the second straight season in 2009, were the NFL’s 29th-ranked run defense, allowing opponents 155.5 yards per game.

Still, we like the move. If the Raiders can beef up their defensive line through the draft, via trade or through free agency, and if they stop reaching in the first round by taking athletes over FOOTBALL PLAYERS and nab a sure thing like Alabama linebacker Rolando McClain (kid will be in the Pro Bowl in year one, count on it), Seymour will be that much more effective, even at this advanced stage of his career.

We still wish they’d turn Nnamdi Asomugha loose in man-to-man coverage, thereby increasing his chances of making more of an impact rather than having teams shy away from him for four quarters every week, but that’s another story.

For now, locking up Seymour, as they did All-Pro punter Shane Lechler and veteran kicker Sebastian Janikowski previously, is a smart move on the Raiders’ part.

Hopefully that trend will continue into the draft and beyond.

Having All-Universe punter Shane Lechler already signed, sealed and delivered, it was comforting to know that the NFL’s best kicking game would remain intact.

But it was also a painful reminder of Oakland’s sorry state.

There’s no questioning Jano’s leg strength or accuracy, at least not this past season, one in which he converted 26 of 29 attempts, including a career-best 61-yarder in a loss at Cleveland. But there is plenty to question in the decision to pony up $16 million, $9 million guaranteed, to a kicker who hasn’t had to make a truly meaningful kick in eight years, hasn’t cracked the 100-point mark in six seasons and has never been named to to a Pro Bowl.

We had serious reservations when the Raiders drafted Jano in the first round of the 2000 draft because 1) kickers are reserved for later rounds and free-agent tryouts, 2) most grow on trees, 3) help was surely needed in other places and 4) if you’ll recall, Joe Nedney appeared to have the job well in hand, especially after booting a long field goal in overtime to beat hated AFC West rival Kansas City in the 1999 season finale and deny the Chiefs a trip to the postseason.

It’s great that Jano can kick it 75 yards during warmups and is the only NFL kicker who will never come up short on any attempt between 50 and 60 yards. But what good is it to have a money kicker when you don’t have a money quarterback, money linebackers, money safeties, money pass rushers or money receivers (though Louis Murphy and Chaz Schilens possess that kind of potential)?

At present, Jano could be the difference between 3-13 and 5-11, the Raiders’ mark in each of the past two seasons. We could be wrong, of course. JaMarcus Russell could wake up and become a quality NFL QB, though it seems less and less likely with each fumble, sack and interception thrown into triple-zone coverage less than 10 yards in front of him.

If, somehow, the Raiders can make the jump from also-ran to competitive, winning franchise in 2010, it will be because whomever is quarterbacking them takes care of the ball and the team finds a way to win the close games, which is where we’ll see if Janikowski can come anywhere close to earning his keep.

We understand why Jerry Rice, the creme da le creme of NFL wide receivers, was the only hand-smith afforded reserved seating at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010.

But that doesn’t mean we have to like the fact that Tim Brown, the face of the Oakland Raiders for more than a decade and the third-leading receiver in touchdowns, yards and receptions at the time of his retirement in 2005, failed to make the cut in his first year of eligibility.

We take comfort in knowing that the numbers — 1,094 receptions for 14,934 yards and 101 touchdowns — guarantee that Brown will one day have his very own bronze bust on display in Canton, Ohio.

Not to take anything away from Rice, which nobody of sound mind can, but a strong case can be made that Brown earned the right to have entered the Hall along with his former teammate, and we’re gonna make it, thank you very much.

Nine Pro Bowl appearances. Nine consecutive 1,000-yard seasons. Six all-conference selections. A berth on the NFL’s 1990s All-Decade Team. All are part of a dynamite Hall of Fame resume, but Brown’s worth went well beyond the numbers.

He didn’t play for multiple Super Bowl champions, he wasn’t surrounded by Hall of Famer players during his prime and playoff trips were few and far between before the Gannon Express rolled into town in the late 1990s. The guys throwing him the ball weren’t named Montana or Young; they were folks with names like Mirer, Hilger, Schroeder (stings just writing it), Marinovich, Hostetler, Hollas (ah, the good old days) and George.

And not that Rice needed any help, but he did have the luxury of having a stud receiver like John Taylor lining up on the other side of the line and drawing the attention of defensive backs just for his being there. Brown’s pass-catch partners in crime included Mervyn Fernandez, Willie Gault and Rocket Ismail, none of which ever saw a double-team in his life. Brown was often chipped at the line, double- and triple-teamed, yet still managed to break through coverage and come up with too many huge third-down receptions and lead-taking touchdowns to count. In short, he was the show in Los Angeles, then later in Oakland, and carried his teams on his shoulders. Sometimes, the distance wasn’t very far, but he did it with style, class and amazing regularity for a very long time.

When Brown does get the call from the Hall, it better come before Andre Reed and Cris Carter receive theirs. If Brown had a decade to play catch with Jim Kelly or had not one but two stints as Randall Cunningham’s personal red-zone caddy, you could easily tack on another 3,000 yards and 30 TDs to his career totals.

A stand-up man with the backbone to stand up to anyone, including Raiders owner Al Davis, Brown commands respect in football circles old and new. There was no reason to leave him off the Hall of Fame guest list this year, and there will be no excuse if it happens again 12 months from now.