Five Oakland Raiders Facing a Make Or Break Season

Dec 7, 2014; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders wide receiver Andre Holmes (18) is unable to control the ball against San Francisco 49ers strong safety Antoine Bethea (41) during the second quarter at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

It goes without saying that there is a lot riding on this season for the Oakland Raiders. Despite some terrific upgrades to the roster over the course of the offseason, there are still many, many question marks facing the organization as we continue barreling toward the start of the 2015 season.

How will the running game fare? Will it be better than last season? Will Latavius Murray prove to be a workhorse back? Will Trent Richardson finally develop into an adequate NFL back? Will Derek Carr take the next step toward becoming the franchise quarterback the organization believes him to be? With all of the upgrades, will the defense be better in 2015 than it was in 2014?

Oakland is going to have to answer all of those questions and a thousand more as they move through the draft and training camp.

After slipping to 3-13 after posting consecutive 4-12 campaigns, the Raiders have overhauled much of their roster. And that tinkering is still far from done. It’s clear that Mark Davis is taking a more hands on approach to this season, and that he’s growing ever more impatient with all of the losing – 12 seasons without a winning record and counting.

GM Reggie McKenzie has deftly guided the franchise through the salary cap hell left by late owner Al Davis, but he’s misfired on quite a few draft picks and free agents. On McKenzie’s watch, the Raiders – in terms of talent – have had one of the most barren rosters in football. He certainly didn’t help his stock as a GM at all last season by bringing in a number of players – obviously well past their prime – who contributed very little in the way of the team’s success.

This offseason though, McKenzie – with substantial input from Davis and HC Jack Del Rio – has been targeting younger, more athletic players. Though he missed out on some of this year’s biggest free agent prizes, McKenzie has stocked the roster with some very solid players and huge upgrades at a number of positions.

Talent-wise, the Raiders are in far better shape today than they have been in a number of years. While a Super Bowl title may be out of their reach this season – though stranger things have happened – the Raiders look like they will be a much improved team in 2015.

And that’s a good thing, both for McKenzie and for some of the players currently populating the Oakland roster. For some of them, a successful season – by whatever metric is used to measure that – could be parlayed into a bigger and more lucrative deal for themselves. A successful season could be used as a springboard to help carry the organization to heights it hasn’t seen in quite some time.

On the flip side of that though, a 13th consecutive season of futility could be bad news for some of the players on the roster. Another poor showing could possibly be the end of the career line for some of these players. While talented players will always find a home, of course, for some of these players, other teams might not be willing to roll the dice on them. Have Tarell Brown or Stefen Wisniewski found work yet?

2015 is an important season for the Raiders as a franchise, as well as for some of the players in the locker room. With plenty of cash to spend, a number of solid free agent acquisitions, and a high draft pick that should yield a high impact player, there are some expectations that have been put upon this team. And rightly so.

While perhaps it’s not a title or bust year for Oakland in the mind of Davis, it’s absolutely clear that he will be expecting to see some progress and improvement. Failure to do so could be very, very bad for a lot of people.

With that in mind then, let’s look at five Raiders who are very possibly looking at make or break years…

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