It’s never to early to look at the next year’s Super Bowl odds, and one of the teams that will garner a ton of attention is the Oakland Raiders.
The Raiders gave Jon Gruden the richest deal in NFL coaching history to return to the Bay Area, and his relentless coaching style will surely fit well with a fan base that never wanted to see him go in the first place.
Jack Del Rio is a fine coach, and he did a great job reworking an Oakland defense that struggled mightily before his arrival. Though there is work to be done on that side of the ball for sure, the big knock on Del Rio is that his offense was rather stagnant this year, something that shouldn’t have been the case with a pair of former first-round wide receivers and a quarterback who just received the largest contract in NFL history.
It’s been awhile since Gruden has been on the sidelines, but there’s no doubt that he is still one of the top coaching minds in the NFL.
Consider this: When Gruden first came to Oakland, he had to revive the career of journeyman quarterback, Rich Gannon. Gannon became a Pro Bowler, and though he ultimately went on to win his lone MVP the year Gruden was traded to Tampa Bay, he credited his former coach with much of his success.
The second exhibit of Gruden’s offensive coaching ability came with Brad Johnson. Outside of Tampa, no one really gave Johnson much of a chance to succeed late in his career. He was one of your typical “game managers” who was tasked with not screwing games up, but Gruden got the best out of him and rode him to a Super Bowl title in his first season on the job.
Now, Gruden has an established quarterback in Derek Carr, whom he gushed over during his time on ESPN as a commentator, and he has Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree, the best receiving duo he has ever had the chance to work with by a country mile.
The AFC West is also full of questions at this point.
The Chiefs won the AFC West in a Jekyll-and-Hyde type of season. There were points that they looked like juggernauts and times where they just looked flat, and the end result after an opening-round playoff loss is going to see Alex Smith either benched or traded. Is Patrick Mahomes legitimately a starting quarterback in this league? And can Andy Reid really keep this locker room after yet another postseason failure?
The same questions at quarterback are true in Denver, save for the fact that the Broncos don’t have a legitimate answer at quarterback like Mahomes. They, too, have coaching issues. Vance Joseph was nearly booted out of town after just one year on the job. He’ll be retained, but there isn’t much confidence that he’s the long-term answer.
The Chargers might be the biggest threat to the Raiders in the AFC West next season, but Philip Rivers is up there in age, and the StubHub Center often sounds like the home of the visiting team. There isn’t a worse home-field advantage in the NFL.
Ben Roethlisberger could retire in a matter of just a few short weeks, and if reports of turmoil at 1 Patriot Place are true, we could finally be at the end of the dynasty in New England.
On Monday, BetDSI.eu released next year’s Super Bowl odds on the Raiders, lining them at 20/1. The Raiders opened up the 2017 season at 15/1 to win the Super Bowl, but they figure to have the lowest odds to hoist the Lombardi Trophy next season amongst the 20 teams that failed to make the playoffs this year.
