Five reasons to be optimistic about Raiders
ALAMEDA – It’s conceivable the Raiders could finish 2-14, their worst record since the ill-fated Art Shell redux in 2006.
You can see the connection – Shell comes back 12 years after being Raiders head coach, Jon Gruden returns after nine years in the broadcast booth.
Yet I’m here to tell you the vibe in the locker room after Sunday’s 40-33 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs was one of the strangest I’ve experienced. In a winor-else league, the Raiders embraced the concept of putting up the good fight even if it’s frowned upon in a win-orelse society.
“To go toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the league, it was good to see,” veteran defensive end Frostee Rucker said. “No one’s happy about the loss, but it was great to watch these guys compete. Something is building here. You’ve got to take the silver lining.”
Rucker may be back in 2018, he may not. He was drafted in 2006 by Cincinnati – the same year Shell came back to he Raiders. When 2019 rolls around, Rucker, 35, may be retired or looking for a job.
He didn’t come back to be 2-10 any more than Gruden returned to coaching to be in last place in the AFC West. Yet he’s sincerely on board.
The Raiders are within reach of the first pick of the NFL draft but at the same time are showing some fight and some pride with a quarter of the season remaining.
It counts for nothing at the moment, with Gruden’s hope being something has been established that can carry on whether the home venue next season is Oakland or a temporary stopover somewhere else before settling in to their new digs in Las Vegas. Raiders wide receiver Marcell Ateman and running back Doug Martin celebrate the rookie’s touchdown in a 40-33 loss to Kansas City.
The end of the Shell season in 2006 was like a weekly funeral. The 2018 Raiders actually appear to be enjoying what they’re doing and are showing some improvement.
The local fan base deserves more than that, but based on three good seasons since coming back to Oakland in 1995, they’ve come to learn they seldom get what they deserve.
The Raiders remain a national punchline at the moment, reminded weekly of the trades of Khalil Mack and Amari Cooper by their supposedly hopelessly out-of-touch coach. But piling on is easy. Much more difficult is finding five reasons for cautious optimism heading in to the future other than having a lot of draft picks:
The Raiders are better than the 49ers.
A little over a month ago, I called a 34-3 loss to the 49ers at Levi’s Stadium the low point in the history of the franchise for a regular season game and I stand by it. The Raiders were humiliated by their cross-bay rival and firsttime starter Nick Mullens.
I tried to sell Gruden on the idea that it was a watershed moment for the season, since the Raiders have played with much more emotion and enthusiasm ever since. He wasn’t buying it. He said he hates Thursday night football, particularly on the road, and that his offensive line was in shambles. Fair enough. But there was a meeting with the rookie class after that loss and an obvious emphasis on trying to put some joy back in the game. The Raiders have won just one game since, but in no way have resembled the team that got worked over by a bad 49ers team.
Gruden, despite his reputation for histrionics, kept his head throughout that debacle and made it actually work in his favor.
The Washington Redskins considered bringing in Colin Kaepernick for a workout Tuesday, Coach Jay Gruden said, as the team looks to add another quarterback to the roster following Colt Mccoy’s season-ending injury Monday night, but ultimately decided against it.
Kaepernick has not played in the NFL since the 2016 season, when he made national headlines for kneeling during the playing of the national anthem before games to call attention to the issues of racial inequality and police brutality against African Americans. Kaepernick filed a collusion grievance against the NFL in October 2017, alleging an organized effort to keep him off a roster as a result of his protests.
The team needs to sign a quarterback to back up Mark Sanchez, the only healthy signal-caller on the roster who was signed by the team just two weeks ago. The Redskins are bringing in two free agent quarterbacks for a workout late Tuesday afternoon, and will compare them with the group that worked out after Alex Smith suffered a season-ending leg injury Nov. 18 against the Texans.