The 2019 NFL season not only marks the NFL’s centennial, but also marks the final season the Oakland Raiders will play football in Oakland. It truly is the end of an era. Yes, the Raiders did have a fourteen-year flirtation with Los Angeles, but they eventually found their way back to the bay. This is different though, as the second centennial of the NFL will be written with the Las Vegas Raiders and only the Las Vegas Raiders.
While there will be a lot of chatter this year about the Oakland Raiders impending move, there are still a lot of intriguing plot points around the Raiders’ 2019 season. Chiefly among those being Year Two of the Jon Gruden era.
The former-head coach returned to the sidelines after a decade in the broadcast booth. So, how rusty was the old coach in Year One? Well…they traded away most of their franchise players, had a 4-12 record, then hired Mike Mayock out of the broadcast booth to be general manager despite having zero experience as an executive.
With such a colorful start to Gruden’s second stint in Oakland, which direction is the franchise facing in 2019? We’ll get to that, but not before we go into the way-back machine NFL 100 style…
Best Moment: Super Bowl XI (1976)
For a franchise that started off with a 9-33 record over their first three seasons, the Raiders sure turned it around quickly. Of course that came when infamous owner Al Davis took over the team in 1963. Four years later the Raiders would be in Super II and while they would lose to the Green Bay Packers, Oakland remained a threat, missing the playoffs just once between then and their return to the big game in 1976.
Super Bowl XI was a classic, if you ignore the 32-14 final score. The Raiders faced off against the Minnesota Vikings — two teams who had never won a Super Bowl before — and took the field with a combined 17 future Hall-of-Fame players, coaches, and general manager/owner (Al Davis). The Raiders won in impressive fashion, and while Fred Biletnikoff would be named MVP, it was cornerback Willie Brown’s 75-yard pick-six that stole the show.
Best Uniform: 1994 Aways
The Raiders’ uniforms are infamous and there has been virtually no deviating from their classic look. But like their Bay Area brethren, the 1994 uniforms take the cake. Tipping the cap to their 1963 away uniform, when they had gold numbers, the 1994 away jerseys switched gold to silver (duh). Donning throwback helmets to boot make this an all-timer. They even brought them back in 2009 for a few games.
So Gruden is back and working with a guy from the broadcast booth, where does that leave Oakland in their sendoff season? Lets get right to it…
New Faces, New Place
It was one hell of an offseason for the Gruden/Mayock brain trust. Not only did they completely over haul the roster, they do so with some big names. In total, the Raiders added 19 players over the free agency period and another nine players via the draft. That is a crazy haul. The only question when adding that many pieces is, how long will it take for everyone to gel?
Nonetheless, quarterback Derek Carr has to be happy as the team traded for Antonio Brown to throw to and signed Trent Brown to protect him. The team also added Ryan Grant, J.J. Nelson, Tyrell Williams, Hunter Renfrow, Luke Wilson, and Foster Moreau as targets for the veteran signal caller.
Speaking of getting people to gel, what happens between Brown and fellow free agency addition Vontaze Burfict will be interesting. The pair were former rivals in the AFC North, playing for Pittsburgh and Cincinnati respectively. What’s hard to respect is Burfict targeting Brown in 2016. Hopefully no bad blood carries over.
Carr’s Last First Impression?
During the Raiders miracle 2016 season, Carr was a legitimate MVP candidate until he broke his leg late in the year. Since then it’s been tough times for Carr. The veteran just can’t quite get back to his 2016 form and the offseason was a rocky one as the rumor mill churned out a story after story about the Raiders drafting a quarterback last April.
They didn’t, but the 2020 quarterback class is shaping up to be a rich one and Carr’s guaranteed money is up following the 2019 season. Gruden has preached the importance of continuity, so Carr is still leading the pack and it will be tricky this season. Four of his top five targets aren’t with the team anymore and, as previously mentioned, there are a lot of new weapons to build chemistry with.
The only wide receiver who has any experience playing with Carr is Marcell Ateman, a seventh-round draft pick last year who turned it on down the stretch to finish with 15 receptions for 154 yards and a touchdown. It will be interesting to see if his role expands at all in 2019.
Who Starts at Tight End?
Last year, tight end Jared Cook was Carr’s top receiver with 68 receptions for 896 yards and six touchdowns. This offseason Cook took his talents to New Orleans. So who is left in Oakland? A hodgepodge of veteran journeymen and young unprovens.
Leading the pack is Darren Waller. Waller, a converted wide receiver, has reportedly been a stand out over the spring and the starting spot is his to win. He was poised to make an impact with the Ravens, who drafted him in 2015, but was suspended for the year prior to the 2017 season — his second suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.
Rounding out the tight end crop is Luke Wilson, Derek Carrier, Erik Swoope, Foster Moreau, and Paul Butler.
Youth In the Trenches
The team added a number of players to each level of the defense this offseason, but what stands out the most is the youth movement along the defensive line. Defensive coordinator Paul Guenther relied on a heavy rotation in the trenches while in Cincinnati and now has a crop of exciting young talent to rotate once again.
Off the edge are Arden Key and Clelin Ferrell, as exciting a young duo there is in the league. Key was a third-round pick who earned 10 starts over the season. Ferrell, starred at Clemson, and surprised many as the No. 3 pick in this past NFL Draft. Behind them are Benson Mayowa and Maxx Crosby. Mayowa, is a steady veteran and coming off his second best season in regards to sack production. Crosby, is also a rookie and totaled 18.5 sacks over his final two seasons at Eastern Michigan.
There’s a similar story at tackle where Maurice Hurst and P.J. Hall were rookies last year. Hurst turned in a stellar year with four sacks and Hall got better as the season went on, ending strong. Joining them are veterans Jonathan Hankins and Justin Ellis. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Hall and Hurst take a big step in 2019.
BREAKOUT: Josh Jacobs, RB
The numbers Jacobs had in college are wildly misleading. While always in tandem with somebody at Alabama, the Raiders’ first-round pick, consistently proved to be a playmaker. Jacobs can catch the ball out of the backfield, pound it between the tackles, or be a dynamic kick returner. In his lone season with over 100 carries he turned in 11 touchdowns and averaged 5.3 yards per-carry. Look out AFC West.
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