“I’ve been through a lot on this team,” Reece, now a 31-year-old fullback, said recently. “I’ve seen a lot; I’ve done a lot.”

Reece is an optimist, and so every year he falls for it: This is the year Oakland has it figured out. This is the right coach, the right quarterback, the right system. Now, so many years later, Reece’s optimism might finally match reality. The Raiders might finally be onto something; might finally finish with a winning season and have that mix of young talent, particularly at three of the most important positions, stability and good fortune to reach the postseason.

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“We’re here to win; let’s win it right now,” was how Coach Jack Del Rio described his thinking late in Sunday’s dramatic win against New Orleans — highlighted by the go-ahead two-point conversion with 47 seconds to play — though the coach could’ve been describing the Raiders’ attitude this season. “Everything about our strategy at the end was to win.”

Indeed, Oakland has been a bystander for a long time. It hasn’t reached the postseason since 2002, when quarterback Rich Gannon won the MVP and guided the Raiders to the Super Bowl. They haven’t even had a winning season since then; they’ve finished last in the AFC West six times since ‘02, next to last in every other year. The Raiders, one of the NFL’s most tradition-rich franchises, has averaged fewer than five wins and cycled through nine head coaches, including one interim, in the past 14 seasons. Eighteen players — JaMarcus Russell and Kyle Boller, Carson Palmer and Kerry Collins among them — have started at quarterback.

So no wonder those in and around the Raiders organization have grown impatient. Thirteen years of irrelevance has that effect.

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Reece is bad about this, and Del Rio has spoken to him about managing expectations. Excitement is good, but be reasonable; this is, after all, the NFL and a franchise that has become infamous in recent years for turnover and turmoil.

But he can’t help it. Reece believes it’s real this time. Oakland has young, elite talent at some of the most important positions. It has a general manager, Reggie McKenzie, who takes a methodical, smart approach; gone are the days of Davis, trying to win immediately and at any cost. The Raiders have a coach, Del Rio, with job security and a calming presence. And it has a quarterback, Derek Carr, who’s one of the league’s most promising young passers.

“I know he’s going to get on me for saying this, but I’m excited,” Reece said of Del Rio. “I’m excited, man.”

Eight years ago, Davis was in a big hurry. He was pushing 80, and it had been 25 years since he last lifted a Vince Lombardi Trophy. He wanted one more. So he ordered coaches fired and quarterbacks changed and rosters rebuilt. Fans demanded the Raiders hire a GM, funding a billboard near the Oakland Coliseum; well, Davis countered, he was the GM. He pursued free agents and traded away high draft picks, racing the clock, wanting to stand in the confetti one last time.

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“I had these discussions with Al,” said Amy Trask, the former Raiders executive and Davis’s protege and confidante. “But if you know that your long-term is not particularly long — he wanted to win while he was still alive.”

Davis fired Bill Callahan one year after reaching the Super Bowl, replacing him with Norv Turner. Then came Art Shell, the Hall of Fame player and former Raiders coach, but after going 2-14, he was gone after one season. Next was Kiffin, the 32-year-old coaching wunderkind who never has allowed anything to get boring, and top overall draft pick Russell and, the next year, No. 5 pick Darren McFadden. By the middle of 2008, Davis was so disgusted by Kiffin and his 5-15 record that he called a news conference, turned on the projector and scowled about the fired coach, who in Davis’s words was a “professional liar” who “conned” the Raiders.

Then came Tom Cable and Hue Jackson, new philosophies and routines and preferences each time. Then in October 2011, the Raiders’ impatient owner died.

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Three months later the team hired McKenzie, who had learned the personnel game from legendary Green Bay executive Ron Wolf, and almost immediately McKenzie started building with what he could. Davis had, after all, traded away every 2012 draft pick but those in the fifth and sixth rounds (the team would acquire several additional compensatory selections).

McKenzie discovered running back Latavius Murray in the sixth round in 2013, and a year later the Raiders drafted Carr and pass-rusher Khalil Mack. Last year Oakland selected receiver Amari Cooper, and suddenly the team’s investment in the future had produced a solid foundation at several key positions.

One of the most important pieces, at least the way Reece sees it, was Del Rio. He has played and coached in the NFL, and he knows when to be calm and when to be fiery. These are the things that players say, though, especially during the preseason; Reece admitted that he probably was optimistic under Kiffin and Cable and Jackson and Dennis Allen, too.

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But he said this feels different. Del Rio, who’s entering his second season, treats players like adults, which is more than what Reece can say for a few of Del Rio’s predecessors, and seems to know just how — and when — to push his team.

On Sunday the Raiders trailed the Saints, 24-10, in the third quarter. Oakland charged back, and after Carr found receiver Seth Roberts in the end zone to set up a potential tying extra point late in the fourth, Del Rio opted to go for the win. No more standing by in Oakland, no more waiting. Del Rio watched Carr toss a perfect fade to Michael Crabtree for the two-point conversion, and Crabtree celebrated so much he drew a penalty. Regardless, the Raiders left New Orleans with an unlikely win, a 1-0 record and even more credibility for Oakland’s fearless coaching staff.

“We’re learning from guys who have been where we are right now. They’ve been where we’re trying to be,” Reece said. “We’re talking about Super Bowl rings on that coaching staff.”

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Yes, the 31-year-old fullback is excited. Maybe, for once, realistically so — especially in the vulnerable AFC West.

But this is, of course, the Raiders and so and all that stability and optimism could come undone at any time; owner Mark Davis, who attempted to move the franchise to Los Angeles, has flirted with the idea of relocating to Las Vegas. The team has a one-year lease with the Oakland Coliseum, albeit with options that could extend the agreement through the 2018 season. Beyond the deal’s expiration is more unknown.