How the Oakland Raiders will win the AFC West in 2014

In the same division as Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos, the up-and-coming Kansas City Chiefs and the divisional sparkplug that is the San Diego Chargers, it will be the bottom of the barrel, dysfunctional, overall mess that is the Oakland Raiders that will steal the AFC West in 2014.

Longshot?  Possibly.  A safe bet?  Definitely not.  But who said that the Raiders had to be the squeaky-clean kind of perfect to make it to January football?

But these aren’t the Raiders of the past 12 years going back to their loss to Tampa Bay in Super Bowl XXXVII.  This isn’t the same Raider team in recent years that had just one or two stars on either side of the ball and the rest were free-agents looking for a job on Craigslist.

Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie didn’t go after one or two players during free agency this season, instead he brought in a brand new team, one of which Raider Nation was starving for.

Remember the key word here: “team.”

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While we have to wait and see if Oakland’s new kids on the block will mesh as desired, McKenzie did a solid job of filling every need the Raiders had in free agency and in the draft.  He literally filled every position except tight end and kicker.

But McKenzie didn’t bring in a collaboration of star players like most teams would have done.

This time around, he brought in somewhat older (29-34 year old) players with something to prove.  These are players that the league had just about counted out.  From Matt Schaub, Maurice Jones-Drew and James Jones, to Justin Tuck and Lamarr Woodley, the new class is on a mission to prove that they still have something left in the tank, maybe more than everyone would’ve thought.  The difference between these free-agent pickups and those of past, however, is that these players have won in the past.

Both Tuck and Woodley own four Super Bowl rings combined (each won two) and ex-49er corners Tarell Brown and Carlos Rogers were instrumental in the Niners Super Bowl run two years ago.  The only returning Raider with Super Bowl experience is cornerback Charles Woodson, who was a part of the Raiders Super Bowl nightmare in Super Bowl XXXVII, but won a ring with the Packers in Super Bowl XLV, alongside Jones.

“I truly believe that it’s different here,” Taiwan Jones, one of the returning Raiders defensive backs said on the team’s website.  “When you have veterans that have been in the game a long time and that have been able to accomplish the goals that we’re trying to accomplish this year, it definitely feels good because you get to see and hear advice from those guys and hear them say that we’re close and that it’s possible.”

This year’s Raiders stole a page from Seattle’s Super Bowl run last year: creating depth at every position.  There’s quality competition at every position as guys who had jobs last year (especially on the offensive line) will have to fight for their job when the first training camp practice takes place on Friday, July 25 in Napa.

While many are calling an 8-8 season a successful turnaround for the Raiders this year, anything short of a playoff berth would still be deemed a failure.

In recent years, the closest the Raiders got to even sniffing the playoffs was in 2011 as the-head coach Hue Jackson and quarterback Carson Palmer led the Raiders to within a game of reaching the playoffs as a wild card.  They unfortunately lost four of their last five games, including the season finale loss to San Diego which sent them home, again.

Oakland finished 4-12 in 2013 for the second consecutive year, as the Raiders were ranked 23^rd in total offense in 2013, but struggled in the air, throwing for an average of just 208.8 yards per game while rushing for an average of 125 yards per game (12^th in the league.)  Defensively, Oakland was 28^th in pass defense (255.8 ypg allowed) but were 13^th in rush defense (107.9 ypg allowed).

Offensively, wide recievers DeNarius Moore (46 rec, 695 yds 5 TDs) and Rod Streater (60 rec, 888 yds, 4 TD’s) and fullback Marcel Reece  have become a solid, productive trio and if running back Darren McFadden can stay healthy throughout the entire year, Schaub will have several options behind a rebuilt offensive line.

Defensively, Tuck, Woodley and Antonio Smith add a ferocity that the Raiders front seven hasn’t had in years, alongside third year linebacker Miles Burris and rookie Khalil Mack solidifying Oakland’s new front seven.

While Denver tries to rebound from a Super Bowl concussion suffered against Seattle and the Chiefs and Chargers have their sights set on taking down the defending AFC champs, the Raiders have the opportunity to take down the Chiefs and Chargers on their way to shocking Denver.  Again, a longshot, but a possibility.  Toss in the fact that Oakland has the toughest schedule in the league this year, and most would say that Oakland even making it as a wild card would be a stretch.

But rememeber what the legendary Davis once said:

“When you have great coaches, then after you have great coaches, you have great players and you tell them one thing: Just win baby!”

“Just (winning) baby,” that’s how the Raiders stole the west.