‘A whole lot of things’ factored into team’s disappointing year
The Raiders awoke Dec. 10 in an enviable position. They were 6-6, with flaws already becoming evident, yet still were tied with two teams for first place in the AFC West and about to play one of those teams, the Chiefs, whom they had beaten dramatically in October.
“It’s good stuff,” then-coach Jack Del Rio had said that week. “It’ll be exciting.”
It was anything but. The Raiders, facing a critical moment in their season, fell behind 26-0 in an eventual 26-15 loss in Kansas City. In the postgame locker room, team radio voice Greg Papa said this week, the coaching staff laid into franchise quarterback Derek Carr. A visibly upset Carr would later take the blame while addressing reporters, saying the loss “sucked.”
The Raiders would not win another game in 2017, losing four in a row to end the season, and in the wake of Sunday’s finale, not 20 minutes after a 30-10 loss to the Chargers, Del Rio was fired.
Carr told reporters that whoever the Raiders hire as their next head coach will inherit “a bunch of dogs. … Whoever comes in next, they’ve got a whole bunch of angry dudes that just want to fight.” But
while Carr claimed the Raiders still possessed that fight in the last month, something else was missing.
“Without getting into too much detail, we’ve got to hold each other accountable,” he said. “In the littlest of things.”
Missed details dooming the Raiders was a theme all season. And while it may be partly true, the issues that led to a 6-10 finish were glaring.
The Raiders began the season amid heady optimism largely due to an offense that featured an ascending quarterback in Carr, a powerful and highly paid line and playmakers at receiver. The acquisition of Marshawn Lynch was a curiosity — part publicity stunt, but intriguing if Lynch could still run with physicality after a year off. The replacing of coordinator Bill Musgrave with Todd Downing was a gamble, given Musgrave’s sixth-ranked offense in 2016.
The result was a unit that fell back to 17th in the league in total offense and was frustratingly inconsistent, ranking 30th in plays from scrimmage. Downing drew heavy criticism in his first season as an NFL coordinator. Lynch and the offensive line did not appear to mesh until the second half of the season. Carr’s regression led to speculation on whether he fully recovered from a lower back fracture in Week 4, or if he lost confidence during a trying season.
In Week 3 at Washington, Carr was sacked four times and threw two interceptions as the Raiders, who had started 2-0, were soundly beaten 27-10 in prime time. In November, general manager Reggie McKenzie recalled that game as “a punch to the gut” for the organization. “I don’t know about the confidence,” McKenzie said, “but it shook ’em. It shook all of us.”
It was the first of four consecutive losses, and the Raiders never seemed to regain the swagger they displayed for much of last season and up through a 45-20 win over the Jets in Week 2.
Poor defensive performance in the first half led to the firing after Week 11 of coordinator Ken Norton Jr., a move that angered some players. Bruce Irvin and Khalil Mack were both excused from practice the following day, with Irvin later acknowledging Del Rio had allowed him time to move past the decision. Even as the defense improved under John Pagano, players remained hesitant to discuss the improvement in order not to come off as criticizing Norton.
As the season neared its end, players were less visible in the locker room and more frequently declined interview requests. When the Raiders had four players named to the Pro Bowl, only one — left guard Kelechi Osemele — talked to reporters that week and said the fact the Raiders had three offensive linemen selected was “kind of a surprise.”
When Del Rio was fired Sunday, it came after he had already addressed the locker room. Del Rio then announced the news himself to reporters while many players learned of it on their phones or directly from the media.
“We heard that he let you guys know,” tight end Lee Smith said afterward. “There’s been so many disappointing things about this season that there’s no way to pinpoint one that took the cake. But at the end of the day it’s a production-based business, and we didn’t produce.”
Across the room, cornerback Sean Smith was asked what had gone wrong for the Raiders this season.
“I don’t know where to start,” Smith said. “It was a whole lot of things, I’ll tell you that much. It wasn’t just one person or thing. It was a collection of things. It was just one of those years. I don’t know, I can’t even speak too much about it. It was tough.”
With the Raiders expected to reunite with former coach and current ESPN analyst Jon Gruden, the question is whether Gruden can lead a faster turnaround at 54 than he did when the Raiders first hired him at 34, taking a team that won four games the previous year and going 8-8 his first two seasons before reaching the conference championship game in 2000.
The Raiders next season will have to improve on a minus-14 turnover differential that ranked third-worst in the league. They could use more production from their upcoming draft class — their top two picks in 2017, defensive backs Gareon Conley and Obi Melifonwu, played a total of 97 snaps as rookies. Those factors were not directly Del Rio’s fault, though he paid the price.
“It’s not just on the coach,” fullback Jamize Olawale said. “Clearly, you look at our record and we didn’t produce. So, we have a lot to fix moving forward.”