When the offseason began, Raiders owner Mark Davis said that the team had no more built-in excuses after navigating their way through salary cap hell and years with diminished draft picks because of ill-advised trades.
The message isn’t any different several months later. Davis called an offseason that saw the Raiders add players like Khalil Mack, Matt Schaub, Justin Tuck, LaMarr Woodley, Derek Carr and James Jones “phenomenal” and then followed up that praise for General Manager Reggie McKenzie with a reminder that the mistakes of the past won’t be available as excuses any longer by saying that “results speak.”
“Obviously nobody’s happy with the way that season ended ... this year is the year, there are no more excuses,” Davis said, via Jerry McDonald of the Bay Area News Group. “There were games last year where we didn’t show up. The Kansas City game. One play four times? The same guy scoring four touchdowns? Philadelphia, seven touchdown passes? It wasn’t there. That can’t happen any more.”
Davis isn’t issuing any specific ultimatums, but the situation doesn’t really call for them. McKenzie and coach Dennis Allen have overseen the dismantling of what came before and they need to show this season that they are the right guys to oversee the rebuilding of the Raiders into a competitive team that can contend for postseason berths and/or Super Bowl appearances. If not, it will be time for a change in Oakland.