Oakland Raiders are finally trending in the right direction
By Matthew Burks
The Oakland Raiders ended their season with an underwhelming loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Although the season is over, there were some positive things to take away, along with some negative ones, that should be talked about as we address next year.
Raider Nation can finally rest assured knowing that after 10 years of waiting, the team has finally found a franchise quarterback in Derek Carr. Carr finished the season with 3,987 yards, 32 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions.
I’ll admit, Derek Carr’s performance had a bit of a drop-off in the second half of the season but regardless, Carr showed poise, leadership, and the skill set to win in this league. The drought has finally ended.
Along with a quality thrower in Carr, the Raiders have done well in surrounding him with talent on the offensive side of the ball. Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree are a quality tandem that will only continue to get better together and showed they can exploit any secondary in the league.
Latavius Murray had his ups and downs this season, nonetheless, he was able to put together 1,000 yard year, the first time a Raiders running back had done so since 2010.
The offensive line limped into the last few games of the season. When healthy, this line has shown that they are more than capable of holding off any defensive line in the league. For the most part, this group did a solid job in protecting Derek Carr, and that is exactly what they are paid to do.
Now onto the defensive side of the ball.
The first thing that needs to be talked about is the future Hall of Fame defensive back, Charles Woodson. Woodson deserves all the praise in the world for his play defied the expectations as he managed to find the fountain of youth towards the end of his career.
Woodsons’ retirement, although understandable, means one thing for this Raiders team and that is that they will need to find a replacement for him this offseason.
As many of you know, Woodson was more than just a player; he was a leader, brought experience, and helped set a level of play for each teammate to be at during each game. Regardless of who the Raiders find to try and replace Woodson, one thing is for sure: he’ll have huge shoes to fill.
Since we are talking about the defensive side of the ball, it seems necessary to bring up the defensive MVP of this team and that is none other than Khalil Mack.
The Raiders have a cornerstone to build on on the defensive side of the ball in Mack. The hybrid DE/OLB has a knack for getting after the quarterback and is an absolute animal at stopping the run.
Last season, Mack got criticized for his inability to get to the quarterback after only posting four sacks in his rookie year. This season, he shut those same critics up by notching 15 sacks on the year including a massive five-sack performance against the Denver Broncos.
Khalil Mack is a star in this league and has shown without a doubt, that he will be terrorizing offensive lineman for years to come.
On a closing note, I think it will be good to talk about some of the rookie performances aside from the well-known, Amari Cooper.
Reggie Mckenzie did another stellar job in drafting. Players like Clive Walford, Mario Edwards Jr., and Ben Heeney made significant contributions to the team and showed improvement through each game they played.
These players have already begun to show what they are capable of and will only get better as they will have an entire offseason to get ready for next year.
Finishing 7-9 is not something to be overly enthused about, but for this Raiders organization, it is a huge jump in the right direction. For the first time in awhile it looks like this team is trending upward and are on the way to being on top once again.
More from isportsweb.com:
