Kawakami Oakland Raiders take a hit on first day of NFL free agency -

They waited for this, struggled through bleak years for this, anticipated it and anticipated it, then the first day of the Raiders' thrilling new era of salary-cap freedom arrived and ... Wait,baidu@@@@@, the Raiders actually lost more good players Tuesday than they acquired? That was an odd thing to happen on the first day of the NFL's movement period, especially for a franchise almost bereft of decent talent already. Oh, and the Raiders also began the day with more than $50 million in available cash under the salary cap limit. Result: They lost good young left tackle Jared Veldheer to Arizona, lost solid young defensive end Lamarr Houston to Chicago, and lost productive tailback Rashad Jennings to the New York Giants. Nobody is claiming that those three are destined to be superstars or even would have done much to prevent yet another 4-12 Raiders season in 2014,Missouri Football- Tigers Looking to Defend SEC East Crown@@@@@. But they were among the Raiders' most valued players -- possibly the three most valuable -- and none of them got mega-bucks to leave the Raiders. In fact, Veldheer got less than the Raiders eventually paid to land former St. Louis offensive lineman Rodger Saffold, who has missed 17 games in the past three seasons. And it's not like the Raiders are teeming with credible replacements for any player, at any position, which is partly why they've gone 4-12 the past two seasons. Just as a reminder, Veldheer, Houston and Jennings were three of the four pending free agents that general manager Reggie McKenzie suggested in January that he most wanted to keep. The fourth was safety Charles Woodson who is 37, still unsigned, and not very valuable any more. My general point: The Raiders had more than enough cap space to afford re-signing all three, but they couldn't afford the talent drain if they left. And the Raiders ended up taking the loss,NCAA says no to Baylors unique Sic Em basketball j@@@@@, anyway. Now let's be clear, it's not like huge infusions of free-agent spending are guaranteed to bring success and in fact many teams have caused enormous problems by spending too much and too wildly. That would include the Raiders, many times, which is a large part of how they got into this sorry state a decade ago, by the way. Sitting out the hottest free-agent bidding isn't usually a bad way to play it in March and Tuesday's inactivity wasn't all by itself a devastating blow to the Raiders' immediate or distant future. But that has to be added to McKenzie's very shaky 2013 draft, the signing of Matt Flynn and various other non-terrific McKenzie moves over his tenure, all leading to the current bottom-rung roster. What you have left is a franchise that does not quite seem to have a lot of upward momentum, precisely when the owner, the players and the fan presumed that the tide was about to turn. Of course, there is plenty of time and money for the Raiders to sign other players to solidify some of the team's most glaring weaknesses. But now the Raiders also have more weaknesses, after losing Veldheer, Houston and Jennings, with zero guarantee that McKenzie can even bring the Raiders back to their 2013 talent level. Again, when you have more than $50 million in cap space and very little talent, you should be adding talent, not waving bye-bye to your most valuable assets. McKenzie could've ensured keeping one of the trio by using the franchise -- Veldheer was the likeliest option -- but for some reason the G.M. decided not to. He could've easily ged Veldheer for $11.6 million in 2014 and had plenty of spending money left over; McKenzie could've signed Saffold, too, and then he'd have himself the foundation of a new-era Raiders offensive line. But instead, McKenzie watched Veldheer, Houston and Jennings walk and instead re-signed Darren McFadden to a discount deal. Jennings was healthy and consistent last season for the Raiders, and as usual, McFadden was neither. And remember, McKenzie used his first two draft picks in 2013 on cornerback D.J. Hayden, who missed most of training camp and half of the season with injuries, and offensive lineman Menelik Watson, who was coming off a major injury in college and only played five games for the Raiders last season. Here's my motto for McKenzie's Raiders: Get injured, get paid; stay healthy, stay away. How did the Raiders lose talent Tuesday when they should've been able to keep almost everybody they wanted? Maybe McKenzie was fibbing about how much he liked Veldheer, Houston and Jennings ... and it's clear from the contract offers that he liked Saffold better than Veldheer, at least. OK, we'll see how Saffold does in 2014. And maybe McKenzie also badly miscalculated the market and the players' feelings about the Raiders. Either way, McKenzie's track record seems to suggest that he made a blunder in some way to produce what happened Tuesday. This was supposed to be the dawn of a new, aggressive Raiders financial era and now it's almost worse. The Raiders have money but Tuesday at least just couldn't find many good players who wanted to take it from them. Read Tim Kawakami's Talking Points blog at . Contact him at .