Shutdown Corner is previewing all 32 teams as we get ready for the NFL season, counting down the teams one per day in reverse order of our initial 2016 power rankings. No. 1 will be revealed on Aug. 6, the day before the Hall of Fame Game kicks off the preseason.

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If the Oakland Raiders break out this season, we can point to last Dec. 13 as one of the turning points.

The Raiders were 5-7, still searching for a quality win that would make everyone take notice of their improvement. Against the Denver Broncos, defensive star Khalil Mack had five sacks. Quarterback Derek Carr threw two second-half touchdowns against the best defense in football. The Raiders went into Denver and beat the eventual Super Bowl champions 15-12. The Broncos went 8-2 from Nov. 22 on, including a Super Bowl 50 win. Denver only lost at Pittsburgh (understandable) and at home against the Raiders.

It wasn’t the prettiest win for the Raiders, but it mattered. Given the strides the Raiders have made the past couple years, it seemed like a milestone in their rebuild. My guess is that by the end of this season, everyone will agree that the Raiders are finally back.

Before the 2014 draft, it seemed like a significant improvement was a long way off and needed a new front office to execute it. The Raiders screwed up the 2014 free-agency period. The Raiders had a then-record amount of cap space and signed almost nobody of note. Their one big signing was offensive lineman Rodger Saffold, which was a head-scratcher, and a couple days later the team voided Saffold’s deal because of a failed physical. The entire period was a failure. General manager Reggie McKenzie looked like he was in over his head.

Then the Houston Texans (and, to be fair, other teams) allowed the Raiders to have one of the best drafts of any NFL team this century. Houston picked Jadeveon Clowney first overall, and Mack slipped to fifth. The Texans, who badly needed a quarterback, for some reason passed Carr to take guard Xavier Su’a-Filo. The Raiders found a franchise quarterback with the No. 36 overall pick. If you had a do-over with the 2014 draft, Carr, Mack and Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald probably go 1-2-3 in some order. Everything has gone right for Oakland since.

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The Raiders drafted receiver Amari Cooper last year, and he looks like a future star. McKenzie has done much better in free agency. Gone are the days of the Raiders overpaying washed-up veterans just to fill space. The Raiders signed three blue-chip players right away this year — offensive lineman Kelechi Osemele, cornerback Sean Smith and pass rusher Bruce Irvin — and even waited for the market to settle and got a good deal on Pro Bowl safety Reggie Nelson.

McKenzie has done well in finding other moderately priced free agents like receiver Michael Crabtree and linebacker Malcolm Smith, who have paid off marvelously. He even grabbed cornerback David Amerson off waivers after the Washington Redskins cut him; Amerson turned in a fine season and just signed a four-year extension worth as much as $38 million. When you look at McKenzie’s body of work, it seems like one day he was utterly incapable of doing his job (D.J. Hayden, yikes), and the next day he woke up and could do no wrong.

The Raiders are coming. I don’t know if they’re going to arrive this season, but it wouldn’t surprise me. After they went into Denver and beat the Broncos last season, then followed that up with a tremendous offseason, I’m not ruling out a major improvement. I believe the Raiders will be a Super Bowl contender in a couple years. After so many years in NFL purgatory, the turnaround for one of the sport’s most storied franchises is pretty cool.

View photos Khalil Mack is coming off a season in which he made All-Pro at two positions (AP) More