Oakland Raiders: The Franchise’s All Time Starting Team

Oct 25, 2015; San Diego, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders fans cheer during the fourth quarter against the San Diego Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Linebacker – Ted Hendricks

Like a lot of Raider greats, Hendicks – aka the Mad Stork – didn’t begin his career with the Raiders. He was originally drafted by the Baltimore Colts in the second round of the 1969 draft. He spent five seasons with the Colts and one year with the Packers before coming to the Raiders in 1975 and spending nine seasons in Silver and Black.

Hendricks went on to put together an impressive resume as a Raider – after coach John Madden got over his little spat with Al Davis and began actually playing him.

For most of his career, sacks were not counted as an official statistic, so he’s only officially credited with nine – though NFL.com credits him with 60.5. Townsend was a four time Super Bowl champion – three times with the Raiders and once with the Colts. He was named to eight Pro Bowls, was a four time first team All Pro, a second teamer five other times, was named to the NFL’s 75th Anniversary All Time team, and was named to the 1970’s All Decade Team.

NFL network ranked Hendricks as the eighty-second best player of all time and he capped off his career with his 1990 induction into the Hall of Fame.

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