When last we saw Marshawn Lynch in the NFL, the results weren’t great. He landed in a terrific situation in Oakland, however. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

For most of us, the NFL is really a more entertaining league when A) Marshawn Lynch is involved and B) the Oakland Raiders are good. The league is also better when the Oakland Raiders play their home games in Oakland, but that’s a problem for 2019. At the moment, this team is where it belongs and coming off a 12-win season. Beast Mode is back in our lives, too. Good times.

Oakland broke a 13-year playoff drought in 2016 and then signed quarterback Derek Carr to the richest deal in history, so we can no longer think of the Raiders as some up-and-coming team that might break through. The silver and black has re-arrived. This is a damn good roster. Oakland is no lock to repeat last year’s win total — the Raiders’ point differential was a modest +31 in 2016 — but there’s little question this team will be a rough matchup for everyone.

Carr earned a nine-figure contract in reality. What’s he worth in fantasy?

Carr is still only 26 years old, he’s earned Pro Bowl recognition in each of the past two seasons and he’s clearly an ascending talent. He had a sloppy rookie campaign, but that’s the norm. Here’s a partial list of key stats in which Carr has improved each year since entering the league: completion percentage, yards per game, adjusted yards per attempt, interception rate, passer rating and net yards per attempt. And, of course, winning percentage. He can play. Carr directed seven game-winning drives last season, the second highest total in the league behind Matthew Stafford’s eight. He also has one of the lowest all-time career interception rates, for what it’s worth.

The decision to lock up Carr through 2022 was a relatively easy call for the Raiders. He’s terrific, and the team retained flexibility enough to re-sign other young stars. Carr suffered a fractured fibula late last season, bringing an abrupt end to any hopes fans may have had about a deep playoff run. But he was fully recovered by April, and he just went 7-for-9 with two TD passes against the Rams in preseason play. There’s no reason to downgrade him due to health concerns. All is well. Carr has thrown 60 touchdown passes over the past two seasons, he’s protected by an excellent O-line, and his bookend receivers are among the game’s best. Draft him as a fantasy starter in leagues of standard size. Carr is going 30-35 picks later than Jameis Winston in typical drafts, but projections for each player should be extremely similar.

View photos A few red-zone targets would help justify Amari Cooper ’s ADP. (Brian Blanco via AP) More

Amari Cooper looks to make a third-year leap.

Cooper just turned 23 in June and he’s already produced back-to-back 70-catch, 1000-yard seasons. Like Carr, Cooper shouldn’t be considered a finished product, so it’s easy to imagine a jump in production. But at the spot he’s typically drafted (ADP 24.6, WR11), we don’t want to assume an increase in value is forthcoming. Thus far, the glaring hole in Cooper’s fantasy game has been his lack of touchdowns, which follows naturally from his limited red-zone opportunities. He saw only 13 red-zone targets last season and eight the year before. He’s seen just seven chances inside the 10-yard line over two years.

If Cooper is ever going to crack the top-10 fantasy scorers at his position, he’ll obviously need to emerge as a target magnet near the goal-line. Carr talked up Cooper with enthusiasm over the summer…

“That dog in [Cooper] is coming out,” Carr said. “That thing you saw at Alabama where he’d just take games over. Not to say that he hasn’t because he has, but I think it’s not just becoming a thing of, ‘What game is it going to be?’ It’s becoming a thing of, ‘That’s who he is.’ [Defensive backs] better know that he’s really taking it serious, that he’s trying to go attack them this year. He’s not going to let them come to him this year. That just comes with age.”