Despite having a highly successful offseason, the Raiders haven’t received much national buzz. And that is somewhat understandable considering the way the team finished the 2019 season. However, there are a few writers out there that believe the Raiders are primed to make a leap this season.
One national writer who is all-in on the Raiders this season is NBC Sports’ Peter King. In his first power ranking of the year, King put the Raiders at No. 9, which is good enough for the fourth-best team in the AFC. Here is a snippet of King explaining why he is so excited about the Raiders this season:
GM Mike Mayock paid so much attention to the offense because it was simply too inconsistent last year; the Raiders scored 24 points or less each week in the last six, going 1-5 down the stretch. That led to the Raiders kicking the tires on Tom Brady in March. Derek Carr knows, and doesn’t seem to care. I probably like the Raiders more than most because of the offensive improvement and because of four defensive additions: defensive end Carl Nassib, inside linebackers Cory Littleton and Nick Kwiatkowski, and cornerback Prince Amukamara (decent year in 2019 in Chicago, very good in 2018).
It’s also noteworthy that King expects the AFC West to be better as a whole this offseason and that could slow down the progress of the Raiders. However, he believes this is a dramatically improved roster that could be on the doorstep of the playoffs this season.
