I would be lying if I said I haven’t been waiting several long years for this opportunity. I pride myself on finding topics other beat writers and fan sites don’t seem to gravitate towards. I truly hate going with the cliché topics as I personally feel it’s rather counterproductive to what a creative writer (if that’s what some may consider me) intends to accomplish.

With that said, this piece has been a long time coming. I’m not sure I could honestly consider myself an avid writer of the team while failing to breach this subject. But rather than sit here and do another mid-season type of review that brought us to this point, I would like to focus more on the bigger picture of how we got here, why we are here to stay, and why that makes us…

No longer losers.

Winning record

For the first time in fourteen seasons we are heading into December with a winning record. We are also only a single notch away in the victory column from posting double digit wins. Make no mistake, both of these are huge steps into solidifying that return to relevancy I discussed a few weeks back, especially considering that since 2002 all but three seasons have ended with double digits in the losing column. It’s been one hell of a road littered with speed bumps, pot holes and detours along the way. It took much longer than us fans expected, and several years have been shaved off of our lives in the process, but along the way we learned something the late Silver & Black Monarch seemingly never believed in – patience.

Our “commitment to excellence” mantra unfortunately conditioned us in years past to believe the need for patience was for the weak. Al went to his grave dead set on proving to the world that his ways still worked in today’s league and he could build to win one last ring at any time on the fly by stubbornly sacrificing the future. This of course led to Reggie and Marks infamous “deconstruction of the Raiders,” much to the fans dismay, as The Nation had never grown accustomed to patience in an evolving league where building to win now proved all too often to be counterproductive towards a franchises gradual growth and success.

Patience was preached, practiced and tested as we watched a team that appeared to be returning to relevancy by posting back-to-back .500 seasons quickly come crumbling back down to reality. The dead money and inflated contracts finally caught up with us and continued to haunt us posthumously. While fans were starting to pull out the pitchforks and call for McKenzie’s head, Reggie never flinched and stuck to his guns of tearing the thing down and building back up in his vision more conducive to the way modern organizations operate. Part of the patience needed in this process is ensuring you have the right man for the job below you – someone who actually wants to be here, is passionate about the franchise’s history/mystique, and shares a similar ideology. Fortunately for us Jack Del Rio, a Bay Area Native who has never hid his affinity for the team he grew up rooting for, was ripe for the picking as our next coach when we needed a replacement. Mark, Reggie and Del Rio ALL bleed The Silver & Black and have worked together to have us sitting on a winning record with 5 games still remaining.

No longer losers.

Potential

Now with a winning record in place, and five short weeks left in the season, it’s time to really start getting excited for a potential playoff trip. It would take one hell of a monumental collapse for this team not to make the playoffs at this point. A few short weeks ago I personally was still a bit pessimistic on this, noting that we have had a plethora of bounces go our way when needed and the moment that stopped things could get ugly. Several games could have easily gone the opposite way, however, they didn’t (that works both ways, a few fluke plays turned the Atlanta game in their favor). This team, from coaches to players, continues to defy the odds, doesn’t give up, and epitomizes the concept of grit. That’s a big reason we are on the brink of our first playoff spot in nearly a decade and a half.

Playoffs aside, the potential this team has risen to on the field, both individually and as a team, is fascinating:

MVP – Derek Carr is a legit MVP candidate. His importance to this team is paramount and you could see the wind escape the sails on the sidelines when he went sprinting off after dislocating his finger. You could hear a pin drop in that stadium and the momentum instantly shifted on the field. While I think Tom Brady is hands down currently in the lead for OPOY, the Patriots going 3-1 to start the season when Brady was suspended proves that he is not the most valuable to his team. I would make the same argument for Ezekiel Elliot behind the Cowboys line. If Alfred Morris was carrying the rock consistently for them the production would very likely be less but not substantially different enough to turn their season upside down in my opinion. They have played one of easiest strength of schedules while we have played one of the most difficult. Carr should be leading this vote and have the inside track to giving us our first MVP since Rich Gannon’s historic season.

DPOY – Similar to last season, Khalil Mack started off quietly before roaring back into the spotlight as the season goes along. Being voted Defensive Player of the Week two times in the past three games has catapulted his name towards the top of the DPOY conversation. While Mack has seemed to disappear for stretches of time over his young career, recently he has been playing at a level on par with the upper echelon of defenders in the league. His ability to take over games rather than disappear is shifting back in his favor. It’s going to be fun watching this play out as the season winds down and it will be great to see arguably four of the leagues premiere edge rushers, all in the AFC West, vie for this award for the foreseeable future (yes, I am placing Bosa in that conversation already, the kid has been dominant).

Coach of the year – Jack Del Rio has whittled his way into this conversation by taking a team coming off a 3-13 season and showing gradual improvement, growth and ascension to a serious contender. Since landing his dream job there is no denying this team has had an entirely new swagger and has responded with resounding confidence in their leader. The players appear to really enjoy playing for someone who is a former player himself and who also has a passion for the Raiders unlike some of the coaches preceding him. Del Rio has also gotten quite a bit of mileage out of several undrafted FA’s who have found themselves roles on the team. Add in the fact that Del Rio’s huevos grow larger with each passing game and he could be one of a handful of coaches that redefines taking gambles more often.

Executive of the year – I almost decided to channel my inner Teabag McKenz and bring him back out for this part alone but decided to save that one for the offseason. Reggie undeniably deserves to be in this conversation and I really don’t see many other deserving candidates. Jerry/Stephen Jones does indeed deserve some serious consideration and could give Reggie a run for his money depending on how things play out from here. Bob Quinn in Detroit is my emerging dark horse candidate (although I don’t believe a serious contender just yet) and Scotty McCloughan (just for you Guest!) definitely deserves praise for having the Redskins competitive in a division that rivals ours for the toughest in football (proving me wrong that last season was a mere fluke in a down year for the NFC East). However, of the four mentioned above, only Reggie has potential MVP, DPOY and Coach of the Year candidates under the same building, therefore he has to be in the lead for the award at this time.

No longer losers.

The Future

It’s easy to find some glaring reasons why we are no longer losers, but why should we be optimistic that we are in a situation to not revert back to being losers for the foreseeable future? For starters, we have several cornerstones in place by both building through the draft as well as augmenting via free agency with young guys who have yet to, or are just now, reaching their prime. Reggie is a firm believer of building through the draft primarily, and while many fans are quick to point out that many of our starters on both sides of the pigskin are FA’s signed away from other teams, augmenting a team largely void of talent across the board was both necessary and expected to mold his vision. Early on in Reggie’s tenure we saw him attempt to rely on this too much and several players signed as ‘augments’ to allow draftees to develop turned out to be obvious mistakes, leaving us back to square one the following offseason.

Evolution is a key to succeeding in the current league landscape and our staff has done well to adapt while also being quick to both admit and correct mistakes. In doing so, it has allowed us to identify cornerstones, franchise players and legitimate role players to continue developing and building around. The way Reggie has managed the salary cap also has us in a situation where we are not fearful of losing one of our young building blocks anytime soon while also allowing us to continue making splashes among the higher tiers of free agency. Players around the league are taking notice as to the changes our organization has underwent and we will continue being viewed as a preferable destination spot instead of where a player comes for one last pay day and to watch their “careers die.”

The future is now. We earned it. We deserve it. We HAVE returned to relevancy. Now it’s time to go out and represent it, because at the end of the day, WE ARE NO LONGER LOSERS!

Written by: Sir Truth