Stats Since 2000: Las Vegas Raiders
Winning Seasons: 5
Playoff Appearances: 5
Playoff Record: 4-5
Championships: 0
Commitment to excellence. Once a Raider, always a Raider. Just win baby. These phrases have one thing in common. Al Davis and the Oakland/Los Angeles/Las Vegas Raiders. Okay, maybe that’s two, three or four things depending on how you count it. The point is, is that the Raiders have a code. Some may call them principles or rules, I see them more as a set of guidelines they adhere to.
For the most part of their 64-year existence, they’ve adhered to these guidelines. You see, between 1960-2000, the Raiders really were one of the best teams in the NFL. In that span, they went to four Super Bowls, won three of them, had two of the greatest coaches of all time running the ship and a team’s worth of bad ass nicknames and personalities, most of whom went to the Hall of Fame. Most importantly, they followed their guidelines.
John Madden helped build the Raiders into a winning culture. He helped shaped the team and let the players be themselves. It brought him a Super Bowl. Tom Flores expanded on this and won two Super Bowls of his own. Players like Ken “Snake” Stabler, Howie Long, Lyle Alzado, George “Dr. Death” Atkinson, Daryl “The Mad Bomber” Lamonica, Fred Biletnikoff, “Old Man” Willie Brown, Phil “Foo” Villapiano, Art “Big Brahma” Shell, Jack “The Assassin” Tatum, Marcus Allen, Todd Christensen and Dave “Ghost” Casper, they knew when they had to flip that switch and have nothing but reckless abandon on the field. In some of their cases, that switch didn’t flip off at all. They knew how to play rough. They knew how to play their way. They knew how to fight. They knew how to strike the literal fear of God into their opponent every Sunday.
Plays with the greatest nicknames ever came as a result of the Raiders playing the “Raider Way.” The Sea of Hands. Ghost to the Post. The Holy Roller. Old Man Willie. The Mistake By The Lake (a.k.a. Red Right 88). These plays, these moments, they all added to the mystique that surrounded the Raiders organization. It added to the drive, the story, the legends.
And after the turn of the century, it all went downhill.
From 2000-2024, those guidelines have meant very little. What happened to those guidelines? For my guess, they lie somewhere in the Oakland Colosseum, tossed aside with all the useless Oakland A’s gear somewhere in the dumpster. The Raiders have become lost and have strayed away from the “Raider Way.” How has this happened, who’s to blame, will the Raiders ever win again? I’m glad you asked.
Welcome to A Series of Inept Franchises. In this series, well, it’s in the title. This is a series where I break down one franchise in the four major American sports and I’ll take a quick, yet deep dive into why a franchise has so many problems. For the interest of time and not to bore you with deep history and lore, I will only be diving into a franchise’s history since the year 2000. It’s been 24 years since then, trust me, there’s plenty of history already for teams in this near quarter century.
Just a warning, this series may contain some swearing and yelling, from you, the reader, at your favorite teams. Upon reading this, you may become mad, you may cry, you may want to throw up and you may want to yell at God. Reader discretion is advised. Sounds good? Good.
For this instance, I’ll be looking at the Las Vegas Raiders. They were once the crown jewel on top of the NFL mountaintop. The most fearful team in the league that has very quickly turned into arguably the NFL’s biggest laughingstock. They weren’t always this way, what changed? Well, it boils down to three things. Poor coaching, some of the worst drafting I’ve ever seen and the mistakes of Ownership. Let’s get into it.
Who’s Running This Ship?
So, I’m going to start with the poor coaching. Since 2000 the Raiders have had a total of TWELVE head coaches. That’s an insane amount. I thought the Browns had it bad, but they’ve only had ten. The Jets have been awful, and they’ve only had eight since 2000. Why have the Raiders had so many coaches? Well, that’s because owner Al Davis was incredibly impatient. Deep dive here we come.
Jon Gruden (1998-2001): Gruden is technically the first on the list as he’s grandfathered in since he started in 1998. He was probably the best coach they had this century, getting the team to an AFC title game, but he couldn’t get over the hump. At least in Oakland. I’ll get to that with the next entry. But keep Gruden in mind, we’ll come back to him later.
Bill Callahan (2002-2003): Callahan took over for the Raiders after Gruden was gone and immediately got them over that hump and into Super Bowl XXXVII. Just one problem. Callahan and the Raiders opponents were the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their new Head Coach, Jon Gruden. Yes, you read that right. But how did Gruden get to Tampa Bay? We’ll dive into that later but in the meantime, the Super Bowl was set.
It wasn’t even close. The Buccaneers would demolish the Raiders and win Super Bowl XXXVII 48-21. Callahan himself made some very poor decisions leading up to the game which led to the Raiders demise.
For starters, Callahan never changed the Offense’s language used during games. The language that Gruden came up with, Callahan kept it in. That’s fine unless you’re playing against your old coach in the biggest game of your life. The Buccaneers had the Raiders entire game plan and practiced using the Raiders language. It resulted in Rich Gannon throwing a Super Bowl record five interceptions, three of which were returned for touchdowns.
Mistake number two was just as bad. Oakland’s original plan was to run the ball and control the clock against Tampa. Two days before the Super Bowl, plans changed. Callahan told the team that they would instead use a pass heavy attack. The Buccaneers had an incredible secondary led by Hall of Famers John Lynch and Ronde Barber. You could include a third HoFer in there if you count LB Derrick Brooks. Not to mention they also had HoFer Warren Sapp and All-Pro Simeon Rice on the Defensive Line.
Why had the Raiders decided to abandon the run and go to the pass? No one knows. There were rumors of Callahan purposely sabotaging the team, but nothing has been proven. The Raiders fell off a cliff the next season and Callahan was fired.
Norv Turner (2004-2005): After going 4-12 in 2003, Al Davis brought in Norv Turner to revamp the offense. That didn’t happen. Turner didn’t have the right players for the style of offense he wanted to run and that led to two seasons with a combined 9-23 record. He was fired after the 2005 season.
Art Shell (2006): I mentioned Art Shell at the beginning of this blog in how he is one of the Raider legends. It’s important to remember that he is a legend as a player…not a coach. This was Shell’s second stint as HC with Oakland, with him going 54-38 during his first run from 1989-1994. His second run was a dud. Shell finished 2-14 and his status as a Raiders legend may be the only reason he made it to the end of the season before being let go.
Lane Kiffin (2007-2008): Ah yes, the popular College Football coach getting his shot in the pros. A tale as old as time. The funny thing is, Kiffin wasn’t even a college Head Coach, he was an assistant in the Raiders old stadium, the LA Coliseum over at USC. Oakland decided to take a chance on this hot shot and boy, did it backfire.
Rumors were that Al Davis tried to force Kiffin to resign after his 4-12 season in 2007. Kiffin refused to resign and eventually tried suing the team when Al Davis actually did fire him less than a year later. All in all, Kiffin went a total of 5-15 in his Raiders tenure and quickly went back to the college ranks following the firing.
Tom Cable (2008-2010): Cable was promoted to HC after the Kiffin firing and remained the teams HC until 2010. Cable was an Offensive Line coach and brought success to the Raiders offense with his teams finishing top ten in 2009 and 2010 in rushing. That was the extent of Cable’s success. The team could run but they couldn’t win. Cable went 17-27 and was let go following the 2010 season.
Hue Jackson (2011): Jackson was promoted from Raiders Offensive Coordinator to HC after Cable’s firing. Jackson started the season off well by getting the team to a 7-4 record. Oakland was finally at the doorstep of returning to the playoffs for the first time since their Super Bowl loss in the 2002 season. That didn’t happen. Jackson then lost three straight games and four of the last five to finish the season 8-8 and miss the playoffs entirely. He was fired by new GM Reggie McKenzie.
Dennis Allen (2012-2014): If you’re keeping track, Allen was the 7th person to become Raiders HC since 2002. And there’s still 10 years of coaching we have to talk about after him!
This stint wasn’t entirely Allen’s fault. The Raiders had salary cap issues and had traded away most of their draft picks before Allen had even accepted the HC job. It also didn’t help that Oakland whiffed on most of their draft picks, but I’ll get to that in a bit. In the meantime, the pieces weren’t there for Allen to have his team in place. He finished with a horrendous 8-28 record and was fired just four games into the 2014 season.
Jack Del Rio (2015-2017): This was my favorite hire of this century of Raiders coaches. Del Rio also happens to be the best hire, so far at least. After the previous coaching regime ended the 2014 season at 4-12, Del Rio improved the team and got them to 7-10 in 2015. He doubled down the next season and got the team to 12-4 and to the playoffs for the first time in 13 years. He even had helped turn QB Derek Carr into an MVP type player! It felt as if for the first time in a long time, the Raiders had found their bad boy identity again.
Just as quickly as that thought came, it vanished. In Week 16, on Christmas Eve, Carr left the game with fibula fracture after taking a sack against the Colts. Merry Christmas Raider fans. Here’s your reminder that the football gods hate you for some reason.
Connor Cook took over for the remainder of the season, but the damage was done. While the Raiders did make it back to the playoffs, they fell in the Wild Card round to the Texans 27-14.
Del Rio’s team took a bit of a step back the following year, falling to 6-10. Del Rio was fired after that season, unfairly in my opinion. When you take a deeper look into it, the decision to fire him seemed even stranger.
Following the 2016 season, Del Rio had signed a 4-year extension that would keep him around until at least 2019. He essentially had the rug ripped from right underneath him following 2017. To make matters worse, after the Raiders lost to the Chargers in the regular season finale, the team made Del Rio go out there and ANNOUNCE HIS OWN FIRING VIA PRESS CONFERENCE!
12/31/2017
— AFL Godfather 🏴☠️👓🏈🔥 (@NFLMAVERICK) December 31, 2023
HC Jack Del Rio was fired after the Chargers beat the Raiders 30-10.
"It was a great honor for me to lead this organization and get this opportunity, and I understand it's a results business. We had a great first two years and this year was a big disappointment." pic.twitter.com/BFpqFrY4T0
How low can you get? How tone deaf can a team be to the situation??
What we didn’t know at the time is that a plan was being formed. A plan to bring back an old friend.
Jon Gruden (2018-2021): Guess who’s back, back again, Gruden’s back, tell a friend. Gruden had been away from coaching for nine years and had a nice cozy job as ESPN color analyst for Monday Night Football. Honest opinion, him at Mike Tirico are one of the most underrated announcing duos of all time.
Back to business, Gruden was hired to get back to the Raiders winning ways as he did at the beginning of the century. That didn’t go as planned. His seasons with the team would start off somewhat strong but finish poorly and have the team miss the playoffs entirely. Gruden would go 22-31 in his second stint and would wear his face mask during the Covid 2020 season in a way I still don’t understand.
But it’s the way he was let go from the team that everyone remembers. This is going to get a little confusing so stay with me.
In October 2021, the NFL was investigating the Washington Football Team and their owner Dan Schnider for workplace misconduct. Without getting too much into it, Washington was a mess to say the least. That however is another blog for another day.
What you do need to know is that Washington used to employ Jon Gruden’s brother, Jay Gruden, as their HC and Bruce Allen as their GM. Jon was close with both men and would email them back and forth even though he was away from coaching in the NFL. Nothing wrong with that. What was wrong is what was mentioned in the many emails that were uncovered. These emails, sent by Jon Gruden himself, contained misogynistic, homophobic, racial and derogatory slurs. Some of those emails also featured nudity of some of the Washington cheerleaders. If you want to read more into these, feel free to look it up yourself. Just a warning, the findings aren’t pretty.
The details of these emails were released by the New York Times and Gruden was forced to leave as HC of the Raiders amid the scandal. He was gone midway through the 2021 season and replaced by interim HC Rich Bisaccia. Gruden has since sued the NFL and has been out of the spotlight since the incident.
Rich Bisaccia (2021): Bisaccia is the only interim HC that gets a mention on this list. That’s because he did such a good job that the Raiders decided not to bring him back. I wish I was kidding.
Bisaccia took over the now Las Vegas Raiders in the middle of the 2021 season with the team sporting a 3-2 record. By the middle of the season in Week 14, the Raiders were 6-7 after suffering a blow out loss to Kansas City. Then, something incredible happened. The Raiders started winning. And they were winning close games proving to themselves that they could scrap it out with the best of them. The team went on a four-game win streak to finish the season 10-7 and sneak into the playoffs. That’s where the fun ended as they lost to the eventual AFC Champion Bengals in the first round.
However, the foundation was set. The players loved Bisaccia; they had his back. He just needed the backing of ownership.
Josh McDaniels (2022-2023): Ownership is just the worst. Mark Davis, the son of Al Davis, had decided to move on from Bisaccia and bring in the infamous Josh McDaniels as HC. I say infamous because, well, his track record wasn’t good. Let’s do a quick history lesson.
McDaniels was hired to be HC of the Denver Broncos back in 2009. He helped turn around the career of Kyle Orton and had the team at 8-4 needing just one more win to have a chance of clinching an AFC Wild Card Spot. The Broncos lost the next four games, finished 8-8 and missed the playoffs entirely. A true collapse.
The following offseason, McDaniels made the baffling decision to draft Florida QB Tim Tebow at #27 overall in the First Round of the NFL Draft. Tebow was a projected Round 3 pick at the very best and would be a huge project considering the fact that he couldn’t throw the ball accurately at all. To show just how big of a draft blunder this was, 3x NFL All-Pro, 2x Pro Bowler and 3x Super Bowl Champion Devin McCourty was taken just two picks later.
McDaniels started 2010 with a 3-9 record and was fired midway through the season.
Eight years later, McDaniels was among the top HC candidates again and was picked by the Indianapolis Colts to lead their team. Just one thing. For reasons that are still unknown, McDaniels spurned the Colts on the day they announced his hiring. He had built his coaching staff, many of whom had already signed on with the Colts, and then just backed out of coaching the team entirely leaving the team, and it’s new coaching staff high and dry.
Now we’re back to 2022. Despite all the problems that had followed McDaniels in the past, Mark Davis decided to hire him and bring him on. Saying what followed was a disaster is an understatement.
For starters, Las Vegas regressed and fell back to 6-10 and missing the playoffs yet again. Rumors were swirling that McDaniels would be fired after one year, but Mark Davis publicly voiced his approval for the HC. Immediately after, the Los Angeles Times put out a report that suggested the reason McDaniels wouldn’t be fired is because Mark Davis didn’t have enough money to pay McDaniels the severance package that would come with his firing. Either way McDaniels stayed. It wasn’t for long.
McDaniels started the 2024 season 3-5 and was then promptly fired. But again, because this is Josh McDaniels we’re talking about, there’s another weird story to this.
Word had gotten out that McDaniels had lost the locker room and players were going above his head to express their frustrations. This all came to a head when the Raiders held a meeting, airing out the grievances that players had with their HC. The players unleashed and let McDaniels have it with everyone from captains of the team to normal players speaking out. Towards the end of the meeting, McDaniels had Linebackers Coach Antonio Pierce speak for him. During his speech, Pierce had used his old 2007 New York Giants team as an underdog story to help rally the team. This offended McDaniels who, in 2007, was the Offensive Coordinator for the New England Patriots team that fell to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII. Reportedly, McDaniels went up to Pierce immediately following Pierce’s speech and said, “Don’t ever talk about the Patriots like that.” Word of this got up to Mark Davis who then made his choice. Davis decided to fire McDaniels and replace him with Antonio Pierce, the man who lit a fire under the team and had them believing they could win.
Antonio Pierce (2023 – Present Day): Pierce would take the Raiders to a 5-4 record and the team finished 8-9 at the end of the season in 2023. Mark Davis then decided to remove the interim tag and hire Pierce full time as the team’s new HC going into the 2024 season. Only time will tell if this was the correct call. At the very minimum, it feels like a breath of fresh air and a step in the right direction.
And there we have it. The Head Coach part of this blog is done. Only two more sections to go. Buckle up buttercup, we still have seas to conquer…. Raider joke, please laugh.
Drafting A New Crew
So, I’m going to try and keep this brief. The problem is that the Raiders have made so many draft mistakes, this section may still end up being long. Alas, we move forward.
Sebastian Janikowski: How many of you remember Sebastian Janikowski? Most of you do I imagine. The Kicker known as Seabass was a fan favorite in Oakland and he had one of the most powerful legs the league had ever seen. He also brought us this famous failed attempt.
Never Forget when Lane Kiffin sent Sebastian Janikowski out to attempt a 76-yard field 😂 pic.twitter.com/tiQ7zM0muD
— Footballism (@FootbaIIism) September 28, 2021
Not his fault, no one in the league could have made that kick.
Now the reason I bring him up is not because he was terrible. He was a very solid player. But how many of you remember him being taken 17TH OVERALL IN THE FIRST ROUND?!?
The reaction of Raiders fans live at the NFL Draft to taking Sebastian Janikowski in the first round is why they're my favorite pic.twitter.com/OFYxipSUCt
— Colton Denning (@Dubsco) March 23, 2023
Shoutout to that Raider fan. That guy rules.
It’s insane to draft a kicker that high. Then again, this is the Raiders after all. They did famously draft Punter Ray Guy 23rd overall in the First Round back in 1973. Still, it’s really hard to justify the Janikowski selection when future NFL MVP Shaun Alexander was taken by Seattle just two picks later.
Derrick Gibson: Gibson was a DB prospect coming from Florida State in 2001. He was the first of Raiders busts this century as his career only lasted six seasons including one missed season in 2004 due to injury. Who could the Raiders have had in that draft? Well, a couple of guys as Reggie Wayne, Drew Brees and Chad Johnson were all taken within the next eight picks. Yikes.
Napoleon Harris: Harris was a Linebacker coming out of Northwester in 2002. As the second of two Raider First Round Picks during this draft, he was the most disappointing of the two. Harris lasted just three seasons in Oakland and left with just 3 forced fumbles and 2.5 sacks.
Were there any other good defensive players on the board still? Unfortunately, yes. The very next pick in this draft was used by Baltimore to take future HOFer Ed Reed.
Robert Gallery: Gallery was taken as a Tackle out of Iowa in 2004. He was fine. Injury prone (missed more than an entire season’s worth of games in his career) but he was fine. Not a bust, but not worth the 2nd overall pick in this draft. This is where the Gallery pick gets bad though. The next three picks in this draft were Larry Fitzgerald, Phillip Rivers and Sean Taylor. Ben Roethlisberger was also taken less than ten picks later. Four legends of their time.
Fabian Washington: Washington was another DB prospect, this time coming out of Nebraska for the 2005 draft. He was taken #23 overall but never really amounted to much. In his three seasons in Oakland, Washington finished with just 5 total interceptions.
In the meantime, lets see who Commissioner Tagliabue announces as 24th overall pick.
Oh. Oh no.
That’s okay. Oakland will get their QB sooner than later. With them passing on guys like Brees, Rivers, Roethlisberger and Rodgers, that just means that QBs are easy to find. They’ll hit on the next one, I’m sure of it.
JaMarcus Russell: Sweet baby Jesus, just kill me now.
It’s a well-known fact that JaMarcus Russell is one of the biggest draft bust in NFL history. Russell was taken #1 overall by the Raiders in 2007. As a QB coming out of LSU, he had a rocket arm as well as the ability to rise up in big games. He also had a number of issues including holding out until after the beginning of the season during his rookie year, showing up to camp overweight (he once came in at over 300 lbs…he could have played offensive line at that weight), and being addicted to “lean” or Codeine syrup as it’s known. Russell finished his time with the Raiders throwing under 5,000 total passing yards and finishing with more Interceptions than TDs.
I have to mention it, sorry Raider fans. In this 2007 draft, pick #2 was HOF WR Calivn Johnson. Pick #3 was HOF T Joe Thomas. Pick #7 was future HOF RB Adrian Peterson. Pick #11 was HOF LB Patrick Willis. Pick #12 was future HOF RB Marshawn Lynch. And pick #14 was HOF DB Darrelle Revis. In a draft where there were six future Hall of Famers in the top 15 picks, the Raiders drafted, in my opinion, the biggest draft bust in NFL history. And yes, I mean biggest because even Ryan Leaf, for all his flaws, wasn’t ever as fat as JaMarcus Russell.
This dude looks like he ate all the footballs. Jesus wept.
Darrius Heyward-Bey: Heyward-Bey blew away people in the combine with his speed. The WR from Maryland was an interesting prospect with big play potential. Interesting is the correct word because while he had the speed, he also had bricks for hands and wasn’t a great route runner. Nevertheless, the Raiders took him 7th overall in 2009. He finished with 140 receptions, 11 TDs and just 2,017 receiving yards during his four years in Oakland.
The rest of this draft was okay at best. Brian Cushing, Jeremy Maclin, Alex Mack and Clay Matthews were all drafted in the First Round after Heyward-Bay. While none of them will probably get into the HoF, they were all way better players that the Raiders could have used.
Rolando McClain: McLain was a Linebacker from Alabama that was drafted 8th overall in 2010. Keep in mind, this is when Nick Saban had started to turn the football program at Alabama into a NFL player factory. Everyone wanted a piece of the high talented prospects coming from down in the south. McLain, however, was one of the few that didn’t pan out. Typical Raiders at this point. In three seasons with Oakland, McLain racked up just 246 total tackles, 1 interception and 1 forced fumble.
Again, this draft class was kind of just eh. However, Jason Pierre-Paul had a better career on just nine fingers than McLain did. Oakland also could have used the help of Mike Iupati, Maurkice Pouncey, Demaryius Thomas, Dez Bryant and Devin McCourty but I guess they were fine with McLain.
D.J. Hayden: Hayden was another DB prospect, this time coming out of Houston in 2013. He was an average player and that’s being generous. In his four years with the Raiders, he picked up 3 interceptions, 3 forced fumbles and 1 sack. Hayden would go on to spend nine years in the NFL. Maybe the Raiders would have liked to take someone in this draft who is still currently playing. Someone like Darius Slay, Keenan Allen or DeAndre Hopkins perhaps. That’s just my thoughts though.
Karl Joseph: Never trust anyone who spells Carl with a K. Joseph only spent four seasons with the Raiders after being drafted as a Safety out of West Virginia in 2016. He finished with just 4 interceptions and 15 pass deflections and was out of the league 2 years later. The man with a K in Karl didn’t live up to his First-Round hype. You know who would have? Chris Jones and Derrick Henry, both of whom were taken after Joseph.
It should be noted that Henry was still on the board when the Raiders had their pick in the Second Round. They chose Jihad Ward, whoever the hell that is, instead. The Titans picked up Henry with the very next pick.
It should also be noted that I understand why the Raiders didn’t draft a QB in this draft considering they had Derek Carr. However, I’m sure they would’ve loved to draft and have Dak Prescott now that Carr has left and moved on to New Orleans. Oh, what could have been.
Gareon Conley: I’m not sure if this is a real person. He sounds more like a bad Madden Create-A-Player. Whoever he is, he came out as another DB, this time from Washington in 2017. Conley spent just 2 ½ seasons with the Raiders and 3 seasons total in the league.
Oakland could have taken a better DB with Tre’Davious White still on the board. Maybe they can forgive themselves for that one. Maybe they thought Conley was the better of the two options. But there is no excuse for them also passing on T.J. Watt in this draft.
Clelin Ferrell / Johnathan Abram: It’s not every year that a team has three First Round picks in the NFL Draft. However, not every team is the Raiders. Trust me, that’s not a good thing. Let’s put these 2019 picks in order.
This was the first draft in which Jon Gruden was the HC for (during his second stint with the team). Gruden wanted to make a splash. Clelin Ferrell was an interesting DE coming out of Clemson. The problem was that most people in the NFL thought the Raiders massively reached to draft Ferrell. Those people were proven right. Ferrell never lived up to his #4 overall pick hype. He finished his Raider career with just 10 total sacks and was out of the league after five seasons. Between Ferrell and Oakland’s next pick at #24, the Raiders watched as Josh Allen, T.J. Hockenson and Chris Lindstrom were all taken off the board.
To be fair, the team nailed their next pick by taking Josh Jacobs, the RB out of Alabama.
After Jacobs, the Raiders were back on the clock with the #27 pick. They chose Johnathan Abram, the Safety from Mississippi State. Abram lasted five years in the NFL with just over three of them being with the Raiders. He finished his career with just 4 interceptions. That pick is a bad look when you realize that WRs Deebo Samuel, A.J. Brown and D.K. Metcalf were still on the board.
I’ll give the Raiders some credit for this draft class. 2019 was the same year they found a gem in the 4th Round in Maxx Crosby. He’s panned out very well and is now considered one of the top DEs in the league. Well done, Oakland.
Henry Ruggs III: No jokes and no “they could have had” here. Ruggs was taken 12th overall as a WR from Alabama during the 2020 draft. On November 2nd, 2021, in the middle of his second season with the team, Ruggs was involved in a car crash that killed a woman and her dog. He was driving his car drunk and at 156 mph in the wee hours of a Las Vegas morning when the crash occurred. Ruggs was cut by the Raiders immediately after the accident and has since been sentenced to 3-10 years in prison. Don’t be stupid. Drive sober. And don’t drive reckless either.
Damon Arnette: Arnette was the second First Round pick for the now Las Vegas Raiders in that 2020 draft. He was cut from the team in the middle of his second season after a video was released of him brandishing firearms and making death threats. Real classy organization Mark Davis has here.
After Arnette was drafted at #19 overall, Justin Jefferson, Brandon Aiyuk and Patrick Queen were all taken in the First Round immediately after. Vegas could have used any of those guys, but I digress.
Alex Leatherwood: When a team drafts a Tackle in the First Round, they expect that Tackle to be around for years to come. Tackle after all, is one of the most important positions on the field, constantly guarding the QBs blind sides from edge rushers.
Leatherwood lasted one year. One year. He was drafted 17th overall in 2021 and came from the national champions at Alabama.
He struggled mightily. So much in fact that he was moved to Guard in the middle of the season. In his lone season in Vegas, Leatherwood was called for 14 penalties and allowed 8 sacks, the second most by an offensive lineman in the entire league. He was waived after his rookie season.
Someone with the talent of Najee Harris or Travis Etienne would have been a better pick here. Actually, anyone who made it to the second year of their rookie contract would have been better.
There it is. The worst of the worst with Raider First Round picks this century. Good luck to Tyree Wilson and Brock Bowers. The bar isn’t high to climb but it seems getting more than an inch of the ground with this team is impossible. Why is it so hard to compete with this team? Why are they never good? It starts at the top.
Oh Captain, My Captain? Oh Brother.
Al Davis. One of the greatest owners in the history of the National Football League. Since 2000 though, he was arguably one of the worst.
Davis was known for a few things. One was falling in love quickly with a player. Look up the contract signings of Desmond Howard and Larry Brown in the 90s for reference on that.
The other was being incredibly impatient. You see, when you’re building a championship winning team, you need to let pieces grow. You need time for them to train, time for them to learn and adapt, time for them to build chemistry as a team. Davis didn’t have time for any of that nonsense.
The Raiders are on their 13th coach in 24 years. We’re talking about a little less than 2 seasons on average per coach. You can’t build anything with those numbers. What’s the point of having guys learn an offense and defense if those coaches are going to be gone in 2 years and the entire team scheme is going to change? There’s no consistency.
Jon Gruden turned Rich Gannon from an average QB into a MVP contender. He took that team to the AFC Championship in 2000. But Tony Siragusa flattened Gannon in that AFC Championship and the Ravens moved on.
Gruden would have had that team in a Super Bowl in 2001 if it wasn’t for some snow and bad luck. Fuck you Tom Brady and fuck the Tuck Rule.
He knew how good he was, and he knew he was one of the lowest paid HCs in the league. He wanted a raise. Davis wouldn’t give it to him because he didn’t believe that a coach who hadn’t won a Super Bowl was worth top HC money.
So, Davis literally traded Gruden away. First off, at the time, I didn’t even know you could do that. To be fair, I was 9 when this happened but still. It’s so rare that I’m sure many people didn’t know that it could happen either.
Second, he traded him to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And if you paid attention to the beginning of this blog, you’ll know that Tampa Bay took Oakland behind the woodshed in Super Bowl XXXVII the following season.
Oakland didn’t make the playoffs for another fourteen years after that Super Bowl. Coach after coach, draft pick after draft pick just wasted away for over a decade.
This same mistake was made 17 years later, this time under the watch of Mark Davis (Al Davis passed away in 2011 and his son Mark took over as Owner). Jack Del Rio had the Raiders back in the playoffs in 2016 and they were flying high. But because they regressed the following season, just by a little bit, Del Rio was fired. It made no sense then; it still makes no sense now looking back on it.
Not bringing Rich Bisaccia back didn’t make sense either. This man had the locker room playing for him, playing well, for the first time in literal years and he helped will them to the playoffs. People forget that they took the eventual AFC Champion Bengals to the brink IN Cincinnati. This wasn’t a “we’re just happy to be here” team. This was a “we can win this and win now” team.
Mark Davis saw this, said “cool”, and let Bisaccia walk in favor of a man who isn’t fit to run a McDonalds let alone an NFL team.
Whenever it feels the Raiders take two steps forward, they take three steps back. I haven’t even mentioned the horrid free agent signings and trades this team made either. Remember when the organization thought Randy Moss and Carson Palmer would be the saviors of this team? Remember when the Raiders signed Javon Walker and Lamarcus Joyner thinking they were getting the prime of both players? Honestly, if I brought up all of these, this blog would be a book.
The point is this, the Raiders have gotten away from their guidelines. Commitment to excellence? Gone. Once a Raider, always a Raider? Doesn’t mean much anymore. Just win baby? LOL.
The biggest example of the straying away of the guidelines is the move. The Raiders leaving Oakland and moving to Las Vegas. Even when the team was terrible, the Oakland Colosseum was a place that no opposing team wanted to play in. That is in large part to the fan base that filled the stadium, specifically the area known as The Black Hole. Do you want to play in a stadium and see these people yelling at you?
FUCK NO YOU DON’T!
I’ll never forget hearing an interview with NFL Network analyst Rich Eisen, where he talked about Raider nation. You have these fans, dressed like this, screaming their hearts out, throwing things like batteries at the opposing teams. Eisen said he went up to one of the fans, all decked out in costume, asked him what he did for a living, and the fan replied with, “Oh, I’m a 2nd grade teacher.” Just a diabolical, insane and bat shit crazy fanbase. I love it so much.
Quick sidestep but I used to date a girl whose family was nothing but die-hard Raider fans. Her, her dad, her brothers, even her mom. She and her dad would tell me stories about the Black Hole and about the stadium. The fandom, the history, the things that would go down with fans at home and even at road games. That is the wildest group of fans I’ve ever heard of; I wish I was able to be a part of it in its heyday. Rest in peace David, you are truly missed.
This type of stuff, these fans, you don’t get this in Las Vegas. Yes, I know Raider fans travel well but it’s not the same. The team is in an entirely different state now, literally and figuratively. It feels like the current day Raiders are more of a tourist stop in Sin City than anything else.
This is nothing against the city of Las Vegas. It’s a beautiful city full of fun and good times. Trust me, I know, I’ve been to Vegas at least twice a year for the last three years and I’m going again for Falcons vs Raiders this December (go Dirty Birds).
But it lacks that charm that only Oakland and Los Angeles brought to the team. It lacks that feeling of toughness, that feeling of reckless abandon that I had mentioned before.
I know the Davis family has had issues with the city of Oakland…twice, but it’s the impatience of the family that really brought out the worst in both men. Now the franchise feels like it really is a shell of its former self.
Recommit To Excellence
In conclusion, the Raider mystique is mostly gone and it’s sad to see.
Can they become the Raiders of old? It’s tough to say.
Can Mark Davis get out of his own way? I think so, the Antonio Pierce hire is a step in the right direction.
Can they draft better? If they look at skills other than just speed, yes, yes they can.
Can they win? I believe so.
No, really, can they win? Yes, I do believe so. Once they get a solid QB that is.
The eternal flame sits inside Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas as a reminder of Al Davis and his guidelines. Just as the flame shines bright, the Raiders organization can shine bright once more. The mystique can come back. It will just take time. And time is the old nemesis of the Davis family. Patience is the Quarterback in this situation, it’s going to be up to Mark Davis to stick with it. If he does, the following words will once again have meaning.
The Autumn Wind is a pirate, blustering in from sea, with a rollicking song, he sweeps along, swaggering boisterously.
His face is weather beaten, he wears a hooded sash, with a silver hat about his head and a bristling black mustache.
He growls as he storms the country, A villain big and bold, and the trees all shake and quiver and quake, as he robs them of their gold.
The Autumn Wind is a Raider, pillaging just for fun, He’ll knock you ’round and upside down, and laugh when he’s conquered and won.
May the Black Hole one day rise again.
