From 2003 to 2015 the Oakland Raiders could only manage 63 wins. The Raiders were a team dubbed “The Team of the Decades”, yet for over a decade, winning and excellence shown on the field were a rare achievement. When the two most consistently good players on a team are the kicker and punter, wins will undoubtedly be hard to come by.

However, this narrative appeared to change in 2016. A miraculous Week 1 win over the New Orleans Saints kick-started what was a 12-4 season that ended the Raiders’ long playoff drought. This was the first time since 2000 that the Raiders amassed 12 wins and it was the first double-digit winning season since 2002. Needless to say, success was far from the norm in the East Bay.