Bell: Raiders should reap rewards of Reggie McKenzie's wise moves
NAPA, Calif. — The topic is expectations. They are hot and heavy this season for the Oakland Raiders, who are seemingly everybody’s pick to make the leap and become a playoff contender again. Finally.
“We’re in Napa, where you can’t make good wine without the grapes,” Raiders coach Jack Del Rio told Paste BN Sports. “We’ve got some good grapes, so we’re going to make some good wine.”
This is what you’ll get at the NFL’s most enchanting training camp site, right smack in the middle of Napa Valley’s wine country.
Reggie McKenzie, the Raiders general manager, chuckles when Del Rio’s go-to line is repeated.
“I’ve heard it before,” McKenzie says. “Makes a good point.”
Ah, the grapes.
In a football sense, the grapes exist with the buff, young talent McKenzie drafted as building blocks – savvy quarterback Derek Carr, playmaking receiver Amari Cooper, versatile defensive difference-maker Khalil Mack. They exist with A-list free agent acquisitions, including guard Kelechi Osemele, linebacker Bruce Irvin, cornerback Sean Smith and safety Reggie Nelson. And then some.
“It’s also about chemistry, and having one goal that begins with trusting each other to be the best,” McKenzine told Paste BN Sports. “In the end, you want everybody to fit -- and to fight for each other.”
The Raiders haven’t had a winning season in 13 years, since the 2002 squad advanced to a Super Bowl blowout loss. So now is not the time to take anything for granted. But there’s no denying the direction that McKenzie – who recently signed a four-year extension -- has established since landing his first GM job in 2012.
To fully appreciate where the Raiders stand now (coming off a 7-9 record in Del Rio’s first season), consider where they were when McKenzie was charged to change the culture following the death of iconic owner Al Davis. There would be no quick fix.
He recalls exactly how Raiders owner Mark Davis expressed the marching orders back then.
“You have to deconstruct before you can reconstruct.”
In other words:
So you want to be a GM? Well, clean up this mess.
McKenzie inherited a team that was more than $20 million over the salary cap. The franchise was so far behind the times, even with basic technology, that one of the first orders of business was to overhaul the computer system used by the personnel staff.
Go watch the videotape? Back then, the Raiders didn’t even have an NFL-standard digital system, which meant an inefficiency costing countless man-hours.
Shoot, the Raiders didn’t even have a legitimate War Room.
Then there was the losing – year after year, with aging, over-the-hill players.
“With a lot of stuff, we had to start from scratch,” reflects McKenzie, a former linebacker who began his NFL playing career with Oakland.
In climbing the NFL personnel ranks, McKenzie spent 18 years within the established winning culture of the Green Bay Packers, where then-GM Ron Wolf built the program.
“I came from a place where we didn’t know what it was like not to make the playoffs,” McKenzie said. “The culture was set. We knew what type of players we wanted, and from a financial standpoint (in managing the cap), everything was done. It was different here.”
It was always going to take a bit of patience. Early in his tenure, this was the time of year when McKenzie rummaged through the NFL scrap heap, looking for help from other people’s trash. There were players claimed off waivers who lined up for Oakland in Week 1. It was that tight.
And now?
“I’m not going into the preseason games thinking I need to claim this and that to fill holes,” he said.
The competition and depth is such in Raiders camp now that McKenzie realizes he’ll be cutting talented players that he wishes he could keep. That only four players remain from the pre-McKenzie era – kicker Sebastian Janikowski, running backs Taiwan Jones and Marcel Reece, and long snapper John Condo – underscores the overhaul.
Still, McKenzie has had his on-the-job training, too. He paid a bundle to sign free agent quarterback Matt Flynn, who turned out to be a bust. His first head coaching hire, Dennis Allen, didn’t pan out after Hue Jackson was dismissed upon McKenzie’s arrival.
“You learn from experience,” he said. “And I’m still learning.”
Having survived the cap nightmare of his early years, McKenzie says he regret cutting players that he wanted to keep, because of cap constraints that he inherited.
“I’ve vowed never to get into that type of situation again,” he said.
McKenzie will have tough cap decisions to deal with again in the future. But the dilemmas will likely be fueled by having enough cap room to keep the grapes worth having to make fine wine.
Follow Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell.
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