Big award:
Football writers name Raiders General Manager Reggie McKenzie the NFL Executive of the Year.
A little more than two years after enduring a 16-game losing streak, Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie was named the NFL Executive of the Year by the Pro Football Writers of America on Thursday.
Oakland was 12-4 in McKenzie’s fifth year as general manager and made the playoffs for the first time since the 2002 season. The Raiders had an NFL-high seven Pro Bowl selections.
“The acknowledgment, really, is for the organization,” McKenzie said in a conference call. “From the top down, the patience, the vision together with me and (owner Mark Davis), through the daily work of our coaches and players on Sunday.
“You see the entire organization working together to win ...
that’s why this award is special. It’s a team award, but it’s special to me that this thing is resulting in wins.”
McKenzie joins Al Davis, who was named Executive of the Year in 2002, as Raiders who have earned the PFWA honor, which was established in 1993.
McKenzie overhauled the roster soon after he got the job, and got away from some contracts that had the club in a salary-cap mess. He also made a bad hire in head coach Dennis Allen and had to weather three seasons with a combined 11-37 record before good draft picks started panning out and Jack Del Rio was picked as the head coach in 2015.
The only three players remaining from the Al Davis era are kicker Sebastian Janikowski, long-snapper Jon Condo and running back Taiwan Jones.
The turning point came in 2014, when McKenzie drafted defensive end Khalil Mack in the first round and quarterback Derek Carr in the second. They are two of the four players drafted in the past three years to make the Pro Bowl. Receiver Amari Cooper, the team’s firstround pick in 2015, has had consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons, and running back Latavius Murray, a sixth-round pick in 2013, earned a Pro Bowl bid in 2015.
Also, 10 players drafted by the Raiders in the fourth round or later since 2013 have started multiple games for the team.
“Whether you point at a certain free agent or a certain draft pick, claim or coach decision, it’s an accumulation of all of the above,” McKenzie said. “That’s what you have to really hang your hat on, just being consistent in the process, with your philosophy, how you want your team to look and play like.”
McKenzie signed four key unrestricted free agents in 2016: PFWA All-NFL guard Kelechi Osemele, linebacker Bruce Irvin, safety Reggie Nelson and cornerback Sean Smith, to go with 2015 unrestricted freeagent signee and 1,000-yard receiver Michael Crabtree.
Perhaps most important, McKenzie has the salary cap under control and set to withstand huge pay increases to Carr and Mack, likely this offseason and next.
“Our quarterback is going to command a high dollar,” McKenzie said. “Khalil is going to command a high dollar. We’ll work around it.”
The PFWA also named Dallas’ Jason Garrett as Coach of the Year and Atlanta offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan — the leading candidate to be the 49ers’ next head coach — as the Assistant Coach of the Year.
Meanwhile, McKenzie said Smith had a minor procedure on his shoulder and “he’s going to be just fine.”