The Raiders signed a lot of players in 2014 and with no success in the originally Dennis Allen-led year. But with a new coaching staff and a new fire, Oakland seems like a team hell-bent on returning to the playoffs.
If there’s anything that can be said about the Oakland Raiders this offseason it’s that they’re really, really trying.
If there was any team this offseason that defined the saying “out with the old and in with the new,” this upcoming Raiders team will be it.
After dropping to a mere 3-13 record in 2014 (a sad, sad drop from the back-to-back 4-12 seasons the previous two years), the Raiders cleaned house, getting rid of Tony Sparano and hiring Jack Del Rio as the new head coach, aka the man who will carry the torch and lead the Raiders back to excellence.
Del Rio may not be the Super Bowl winning coach everyone may have wanted he’s a much, much better coach than Dennis Allen was (in real life and even in Madden). Just on the defensive side of the ball, Del Rio has led numerous top-10 defenses in the league throughout the 2000’s. He was a key part of building the great Ravens defense that ushered us into the new millennium, followed that up by turning around the Panthers defense into the second-ranked defense in the league in 2002, then turned around the Jacksonville defense in his first year as the head coach of the Jags before leading them to the playoffs in 2005. The Jaguars were also the second-ranked defense in the NFL in 2006.
In his last stint with the Broncos, Del Rio led Denver’s defense into the top three of the league in total defense and helped spark the combo of Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware to get Denver into the playoffs in 2014.
After Del Rio settled in and signed on the dotted line, he went straight to work to set up his staff, signing Bill Musgrave as his offensive coordinator. Musgrave, who was recently with the Eagles as the quarterbacks coach says that he plans to bring some of Chip Kelly’s up-tempo, spread offense to Oakland, something that could really benefit now second-year quarterback Derek Carr and the young Raiders offensive skill position players.
On Friday, the Raiders announced the hiring of Ken Norton Jr. as the team’s new defensive coordinator. Norton played with Del Rio in Dallas and was the linebackers coach in Seattle, helping develop linebackers Bobby Wagner, David Hawthorne and K.J. Wright.
The Norton Jr. hiring just about sets up the new, driven Raiders staff that’ll either push Oakland back into relevancy for the first time since the 2002 Super Bowl disaster against the Bucs, or will send general manager Reggie McKenzie out the door.
Player wise, this is a team with talent. With about $60 million in cap space, the Raiders look to be major players in free agency, again.
Last year, they signed key veterans like Justin Tuck, Antonio Smith, James Jones, and Maurice Jones-Drew and didn’t get a lot out of them. Of that group, Jones was the most productive, catching 73 balls for 666 yards and six touchdowns, all team highs.
Re-signing veteran safety Charles Woodson was a huge, important move the Raiders handled first and easily to open the offseason. The even better part is that Woodson wanted to stay in Oakland. Woodson returns to Oakland on a one-year deal worth $3.2 million.
“Oakland, to me, I’m just happy that I had a second chance to go back there and play in the silver and black,” he told ESPN.com. “Really, man, I’m just hoping to, it’s been a long time since that team has tasted any sort of success really.
“For me, man, it would be great if for this next year, man, we got into the playoffs and hopefully make some noise when we get in there. So I really want to be a part of that so I’m hoping we can do that.”
Woodson seems like he’s going to be a key recruiter for the Raiders come free agency, already stating that he, along with Tuck, want top free-agent defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh in the silver and black.
“I don’t think there’s a team in the NFL that wouldn’t want to see Ndamukong Suh on their team,” Woodson said. “I know I would be no different. That guy is one of the best, overall, period in the NFL. Would I like him on our team? Believe it.”
While we’ll have to wait another month or so to see who the Raiders eventually do sign, it has to be exciting to know that the players are on board to bringing Oakland back from the dead.
There’s also been rumors of the Raiders wanting Marshawn Lynch in silver and black, along with Randall Cobb and Mike Iupati to support Carr.
Which brings us to the now-second-year quarterback.
Carr’s arrival in Oakland gave the Raiders a much needed piece of the new puzzle: a franchise quarterback. In his 2014 rookie season, Carr threw for 3,270 yards with 21 touchdowns and just 12 interceptions.
But the stats don’t stop there.
Carr’s 21 touchdowns in 2014 ranked his fifth all-time for rookie quarterbacks, he had the best red zone touchdown percentage in the NFL (72.4), the second best amount of third down completions (104), was sacked the least in the league and was barely pressured and had the second-best quarterback rating 76.6.
He made a lot of noise in his rookie year that other coaches have wanted to come to Oakland to work with him while other head coaches have drawn their praise.
“I think he’s got a great arm, can make all the throws, gets the ball out quick, sees the coverage and doesn’t stand back there and make it hard to protect him,” Super Bowl winning head coach Bill Belichick said of Carr. “I think the kid’s got a great future.”
While it’s been a while since the Raiders have tasted “excellence,” or even decency, it’s exciting to see that this team, front office, coaching staff and players are taking the revival project seriously.
Now we all just have to see if the moves will pay off this time around.
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