Oakland Raiders Need To Press Restart Button Again
Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports
We’ve seen this story far too many times. The Oakland Raiders, currently 0-9 following an expected loss to the Denver Broncos, need to restart again. Since 2002, the Raiders have been telling the story of their “rebuilding,” and now it has hit a point where everyone has put down the book.
There’s no doubt that every Raider fan is looking forward to next year’s NFL Draft, and could you blame them? The Raiders’ imperfect season looks imminent as the schedule gets even tougher, so now it’s time for Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie, owner Mark Davis and whoever is a part of that front office to find the restart button and press it again.
No one really expected the Raiders to make the playoffs this season, but it was the offseason that got the fans and even the analysts thinking that the bridge towards that goal was being built. McKenzie, who built the 2010 Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers, opened up the checkbook and spent $60 million on players and personnel. He even hired a defensive-minded coach, Dennis Allen, which hasn’t been done since the 1970s.
Clearly, that plan didn’t work out as Allen was terminated about a month ago.
So far, McKenzie’s plans for this team have gone haywire and now he has no choice but go back to the drawing board. When I say drawing board, I don’t mean the team depth chart — I mean the front office. Of course everyone is going to blame the players on the field, but maybe it’s time to blame the ones pulling the strings.
The Raiders’ front office put this team together, so maybe the front office needs a restart button. Not to take anything away from what McKenzie has done, but if pressing the restart button means the front office as well, so be it.
John Tolis is an Oakland Raiders writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @J_TOLIS, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google
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