{"id":4763,"date":"2016-10-25T12:18:29","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T16:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/?p=4763"},"modified":"2016-10-25T12:18:29","modified_gmt":"2016-10-25T16:18:29","slug":"the-real-potential-of-the-oakland-raiders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2016\/10\/25\/the-real-potential-of-the-oakland-raiders\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real Potential of the Oakland Raiders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last Sunday, the <strong>Oakland Raiders<\/strong> defeated the<strong> Jacksonville Jaguars<\/strong> 33-16 at <strong>EverBank Field<\/strong> in <strong>Jacksonville<\/strong>, <strong>Florida<\/strong>. It marked the most dominant performance of the young team so far this season, but oddly,\u00a0<strong>Raider Nation<\/strong> wasn&#8217;t satisfied.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Well now I&#8217;m curious. Are you happy about our game with the Jags?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 LWOS Raiders (@LWOS_Raiders) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LWOS_Raiders\/status\/790639633210146816\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 24, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>While some fans were happy enough with a win, some were very vocal about the nature of the win. Many believed they could have, and should have won by a lot more. There&#8217;s something to be said for that. They fell asleep behind the wheel in the second half, and while they still won big, they could&#8217;ve been better. There&#8217;s also something the Raider Nation need to realize.<\/p>\n<h2>The Real Potential of the Oakland Raiders<\/h2>\n<p>While the Oakland Raiders are 5-2, and currently first place in the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/2016\/10\/22\/afc-west-best\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">best division in football<\/a>, there&#8217;s something people aren&#8217;t talking about. This is a young team.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/CarrDe02.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Derek Carr<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/CoopAm00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Amari Cooper<\/a>,<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/MackKh00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Khalil Mack<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/J\/JackGa00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gabe Jackson<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/J\/JoseKa00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Karl Joseph<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/A\/AmerDa00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David Amerson<\/a> are all 25 years old or younger. Of all their starters, only <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/P\/PennDo20.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Donald Penn<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/N\/NelsRe99.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Reggie Nelson<\/a> are thirty or older. In fact, the average age of an Oakland Raider is 26 years old. This is a very young team, and yet they&#8217;re currently the number two seed in the AFC.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s a big deal? Then consider the team they just destroyed in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n<h3>Jacksonville Jaguars<\/h3>\n<p>Believe it or not, the Jacksonville Jaguars are\u00a0<em>even younger\u00a0<\/em>than the Raiders. The average age of a Jacksonville Jaguar is 25.43 years old. They&#8217;re slightly younger than the Raiders, but they don&#8217;t look anywhere near as good. That&#8217;s not to say they aren&#8217;t a talented team. The Jacksonville Jaguars are talented.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BortBl00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Blake Bortles<\/a> was second in touchdown passes last year, both <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/R\/RobiAl02.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Allen Robinson<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/H\/HurnAl01.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Allen Hurns<\/a>\u00a0had 1,000 receiving yards, and they drafted <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/J\/JackMy00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Myles Jack<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/R\/RamsJa00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jalen Ramsey<\/a> this year. The squad has plenty of talent on both sides of the ball, they just haven&#8217;t gotten it together yet. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/2016\/05\/28\/230475-tempering-jaguars-hype\/\" target=\"_self\">They&#8217;re just not ready<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>The Oakland Raiders<\/h3>\n<p>Despite being young, the Oakland Raiders are playing like a veteran team. Derek Carr is top ten in passing yards and touchdowns and has only thrown three interceptions all season. Amari Cooper and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/CrabMi00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Crabtree<\/a> are both top ten in receptions, with Cooper being sixth in receiving yards (614) and Crabtree being number one in touchdowns (six). Despite criticism about a slow start, Khalil Mack is starting to turn up the heat, recording a sack in consecutive games.<\/p>\n<p>Oakland&#8217;s defense has received a ton of grief, but they&#8217;re doing some things really well. They&#8217;re fourth in takeaways, and only allow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teamrankings.com\/nfl\/stat\/opponent-third-down-conversion-pct\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">34.52% of third downs<\/a> to be converted. The big numbers, like yards and points, grab the headlines, but there are parts of the Raiders defense that are thriving. Perhaps, if the Raiders offense<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/2016\/10\/18\/fix-oakland-raiders\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> sustained longer drives<\/a>, the defense wouldn&#8217;t give up as many yards.<\/p>\n<p>Not only are the Raiders taking the ball away, they&#8217;re not turning it over. The young Raiders have only turned the ball over five times in seven games. That means their turnover differential is currently +8. That&#8217;s second only to the <strong>Minnesota Vikings<\/strong>, who have arguably the best defense in football.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>The Future<\/h3>\n<p>The harsh reality is that the Oakland Raiders probably aren&#8217;t going to win the Super Bowl this year. The defense is giving up too many points, the offense gets conservative too quickly, and frankly, most of the team has no\u00a0post-season experience. But this isn&#8217;t a Super Bowl or bust team.<\/p>\n<p>This young Raiders team is just getting started. The Raider Nation get five or six more years of these Raiders at the very least. If cap-magician <strong>Reggie McKenzie<\/strong> can keep this team together, they could eventually become a perennial contender. The Raider Nation shouldn&#8217;t be upset about how the way that the Raiders have been winning. They should be pleasantly surprised that the Raiders have been winning this much at all.<\/p>\n<p>The Raiders are playing with house money this year. If they make the playoffs, it&#8217;s a win. Should the Oakland Raiders win the AFC West, it&#8217;s a win. This is only the beginning. <strong>Empire Strikes Back<\/strong> is the best <strong>Star Wars<\/strong> movie, and the Raiders are still dealing with the <strong>Phantom Menace<\/strong>. The Raiders are only going to get better, and before Derek Carr retires, he&#8217;ll have hoisted the <strong>Lombardi Trophy<\/strong>\u00a0<em>at least\u00a0<\/em>once. No matter what, you shouldn&#8217;t underestimate the potential of the Oakland Raiders.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/617660640\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 79.966330% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Though 2016 has started off fantastically for the Silver and Black, we haven&#8217;t even seen the beginning of the potential of the oakland raiders <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1347,"featured_media":4801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[489,231,61,135,358,490,40,157],"class_list":["post-4763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-raiders","tag-amari-cooper","tag-derek-carr","tag-football","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-khalil-mack","tag-michael-crabtree","tag-nfl","tag-oakland-raiders"],"modified_by":"Parker Hurley, Team Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1347"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}