Of course, as with any situation, fans want to see improvement. Unfortunately, Raiders fans saw the opposite in McKenzie’s first full season at the helm, but placing the blame on him is beyond misguided this early on.
In fact, it is the situation that this franchise was put into over the better part of the last decade that was the root cause in the majority of its current issues.
Al Davis was, is and always will be everything that is the Raiders. He did incredible things for both this franchise and the NFL as whole in his time, but the way this team was run during his later years set them up for future failure.
In the decade following the Raiders’ Super Bowl appearance in 2003, we saw Davis’ strategy of reloading in favor of rebuilding employed in full force.
Massive contracts were given to free agents that rarely worked out, and future draft picks were sacrificed to bring in even more high-priced veterans. The organization was in constant search of a quick fix to get back to the top.
When it became a yearly event that the Raiders were well over the league salary cap, their biggest contracts were restructured to push financial commitments into the future.
Yes, there are certainly times where the salary cap can be manipulated, but doing so over and over again was bound to catch up with them at some point.
Simply put, the Raiders were in “win now mode,” but they weren’t winning. Any strategy of putting the team together paid little attention...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Oakland Raiders
