MEXICO CITY — The Raiders trip to Mexico City has brought some of the team’s legends together. Hall of Fame cornerback Mike Haynes is in town and happy with what he sees from the current team.

Haynes, who played with the Los Angeles Raiders from 1983-89 and won a Super Bowl during his first season, said the 2016 version “seems to be getting its swagger back.”

“Last year I started to really see a difference,” Haynes said from the lobby of his Mexico City hotel. “Four years ago, I came to a game. I couldn’t even believe what I was seeing. I looked at Reggie (McKenzie, Raiders general manager). I said, “Reg, what happened?’ and he goes, ‘I know, I know.’ He knew what I was talking about. Now they look like they’re really on the right track.”

The Raiders (7-2) have a chance to boost their playoff hopes Monday night when they face the Houston Texans (6-3) at Estadio Azteca. The Raiders enter the night in sole possession of first place thanks to Kansas City’s loss to Tampa Bay on Sunday.

“I thought last year, if they get a break here or there, they could’ve made the playoffs,” Haynes said of the Raiders. “This year we’ll be, I think, super disappointed if they don’t make the playoffs. They are really playing good right now.”

While the Raiders presence around the city hasn’t been overwhelming, the expectation is the Raiders will have the majority of the support from the 87,000 fans expected to attend.

Haynes came to town in the middle of the week, returned to San Diego to watch his son play in a high school playoff football game, and then headed back to Mexico City and said the whole experience has been great. He was surprised when he saw tons of Raiders fans at the Salt Lake City airport.

“People are all excited,” Haynes said. “They’re expecting a good game. But more importantly, they wanted to come to Mexico. And the people that I’ve met here are great. Very nice and make you feel at home.”

Haynes said the events around town, which included a fan fest where he led an youth football clinic and hosted an autograph signing, give the game a “Super Bowl feel.”

And while Haynes is high on this Raiders team, he cautioned they’ll never be like the old Raiders of the ‘70s and ‘80s.

“Everybody talks about getting back to being the old Raiders,” Haynes said. “You can’t get back to being the old Raiders. That’s not going to happen. You can win like the old Raiders, but you can’t be like we were. We were the original intimidators.

“We didn’t care about the league office, we didn’t care about the referees on the field, we didn’t care about the guys on the other side of the ball. We were here to win no matter, any way we could. And those days are gone now. You intimidate another player, you can be ejected.

“It’s a different game so you have to find another way to be great and I think the Raiders are starting to do that now. I think having Jack Del Rio come back, who grew up in the area, he knows a lot about the Raiders, he knows a lot about the area and he played the game himself so he has a different thought about it, and I think he’s the perfect guy.”