Oakland Raiders: 6 Players The Team Needs To Show Up Big In 2017

The Oakland Raiders made their first playoff appearance since the 2002 season last year – and for them to have a repeat showing, they’re going to need some players to really show up big.

The Oakland Raiders’ playoff drought was long enough that some kids who started kindergarten that year, graduated from high school before the team saw the postseason again. It was an agonizingly long streak of futility, to say the least. But it’s also a streak that ended last year as Oakland posted a 12-4 record and secured a postseason berth.

Thanks to Derek Carr‘s broken leg, the clock, unfortunately, struck midnight long before anybody wanted it to, with a sound thrashing at the hands of the Houston Texans. But the team has regrouped, reloaded, and is ready for the challenges of 2017.

And given that they have the league’s fourth-toughest schedule, have an absolutely brutal five game stretch coming out of the bye, and finish with three of four on the road, the challenges are going to be legion for this team.

Armed with some intriguing new talent on both sides of the ball, the Raiders think they’re a step closer to getting where they want to be. One step closer to hoisting the Lombardi Trophy for the first time since Ronald Reagan was sitting in the Oval Office.

They certainly have the most talented roster they’ve had in eons, but if they want to make it back to the postseason dance, they’re going to need some players to step it up in a big, big way.