A lot going on in Florida

A quick update on Marquis Cooper......

They found his overturned boat in the Gulf of Mexico with one of the passengers, Nick Schuyler, was found holding on to the capsized boat. It's awesome news that they found Schuyler and the boat.

Cooper, Smith and the fourth boater are still listed as missing and the search is continuing through the night. The three of them were last seen with life vests, according to Schuyler. Hopefully, with the Coast Guard finding the boat and Schuyler will help them narrow down the search and get Cooper (and Smith) back home safe to their families. The Nation will keep hoping and keep them in our thoughts until that point and hopefully we'll see Cooper back in Alameda for the start of off-season workouts.

A second happening out of the state of Florida (but less important) is that Jake Grove has agreed to a deal with the Miami Dolphins. The deal will be finalized tomorrow, barring any unforeseen circumstances. This is a guy that Cable wanted back and has been a huge part of the Raiders the past five years. That leaves the team with Chris Morris and John Wade on the roster at center. Wade was barely beaten out by Grove for the starting job this season, so this leaves the Raiders with a decision of whether to go after a center in free agency or to draft a center. They'll probably give Morris an offer in order to get some youth behind Wade. From there, they may ahve to look at addressing the need through the draft.

The pool of free agents at wide receiver shrunk by one today, too. T.J. Houshmandzadeh is on his way up to the Puget Sound. That's one less veteran, free agent option for Oakland. (Not that they had a ton of money to be out on the free agent market making it rain like Pacman Jones at a strip club.) This puts a little more emphasis on the Raiders' number seven pick in this year's draft. Seattle was rumored to be all over Michael Crabtree, but with his foot surgery and them picking up Houshmandzadeh, that leaves this to be a situation worth keeping an eye on for the rest of the free agency period.