Winning in Oakland used to be a myth. For over a decade, the Raiders were the league's punching bag, a black hole of coaching carousels and draft busts. Then came Jack Del Rio. He didn't just walk into the building; he arrived with a Hayward-born grit that felt like a homecoming.
Most fans remember the 2016 season as a fever dream. 12 wins. Derek Carr looking like an MVP. Khalil Mack wrecking entire offensive lines. It felt like the Silver and Black were back for good. But then, as quickly as the "Return to Greatness" began, it all collapsed. The 2017 season was a slow-motion car crash that ended with Del Rio being fired on the same day the team missed the playoffs.
People love to blame the injury to Carr’s leg in 2016, but the truth is much more complicated. It was a mix of coaching ego, a locker room divided by national politics, and an owner who was essentially "dating" Del Rio while obsessing over his ex, Jon Gruden.
The 2016 Peak: When "Blackjack" Was King
Jack Del Rio earned his nickname "Blackjack" for a reason. He was a gambler. In the 2016 season opener against the Saints, he went for a two-point conversion to win the game instead of kicking the extra point for a tie. The Raiders converted. They won. That single moment defined his tenure. It gave a young team the swagger they hadn’t felt since the early 2000s.
That roster was actually loaded, looking back. You had:
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- Derek Carr in his absolute prime, throwing for nearly 4,000 yards.
- Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree both crossing the 1,000-yard mark.
- A massive offensive line led by Rodney Hudson and Kelechi Osemele.
- Khalil Mack, who literally won Defensive Player of the Year.
But even during that 12-4 run, there were cracks. The defense was actually ranked 20th in points allowed. They were winning because Carr was pulling fourth-quarter miracles out of a hat. When Carr went down with that broken fibula on Christmas Eve, the magic didn't just pause—it died.
Why the Wheels Fell Off in 2017
If 2016 was about luck and late-game heroics, 2017 was about the bill coming due. The biggest mistake Del Rio made? Firing Offensive Coordinator Bill Musgrave.
Musgrave had the 6th ranked offense in the league. Everyone loved him. But Del Rio promoted QB coach Todd Downing instead. Why? Rumor was that other teams were sniffing around Downing, and Del Rio didn't want to lose him. It backfired spectacularly. The offense became predictable, "dink-and-dunk" garbage that neutralized Carr’s deep ball and wasted Marshawn Lynch’s arrival.
The Locker Room Fracture
There is a lot of talk about what happened in the locker room during that 2017 season. The Raiders were a "woke" organization historically, but Del Rio’s personal politics—specifically his vocal conservative views—began to clash with a locker room during a height of social justice protests in the NFL.
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Players like Bruce Irvin and Khalil Mack were reportedly frustrated. The team went to Washington in Week 3 and got absolutely demolished on national TV. Many insiders point to that week as the moment the chemistry evaporated. Del Rio reportedly didn't have a plan for how the team would handle the national anthem controversy, and the resulting confusion created a rift between the players and the staff.
The Gruden Shadow
Let's be real: Mark Davis was never fully "in" on Del Rio. He liked him, sure. He appreciated the 12-win season. But Davis was obsessed with Jon Gruden.
Del Rio later admitted that Davis was honest about it. The owner would basically tell him, "If I can ever get Gruden back, I’m doing it." Imagine trying to coach a team while your boss is openly scrolling through his ex's Instagram. It's impossible. When the Raiders finished 6-10 in 2017, Davis didn't even wait to get to the locker room to make a move. He told Del Rio he was out before the press conference.
The Defensive Specialist Without a Defense
The irony of the Jack Del Rio Raiders era is that he was a defensive-minded coach whose defenses were consistently mediocre.
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He spent high draft picks on guys like Karl Joseph, Jihad Ward, and Gareon Conley. None of them really panned out under his watch. He even fired Ken Norton Jr. mid-season in 2017, taking over the play-calling himself. The result? The defense didn't record a single interception until Week 12. That is a mind-boggling statistic for a professional NFL team.
Actionable Insights from the Del Rio Era
Looking back at this specific window of Raiders history offers a few clear lessons for any organization:
- Don't fix what isn't broken: Firing Bill Musgrave after a top-tier offensive season for the sake of "potential" is a textbook example of overthinking.
- Culture is fragile: A coach’s personal brand and politics shouldn't override the locker room's unity. Once the players stop believing the coach understands them, the "buy-in" vanishes.
- Luck isn't a strategy: Relying on fourth-quarter comebacks (as they did in 2016) is a recipe for a regression to the mean.
- Ownership alignment matters: If the owner is looking for a "star" rather than a coach, even a 12-win season won't save you.
The Del Rio years weren't a total failure. He did "bridge" the gap from the dark ages to a more competitive era. He gave Oakland one last great season before the move to Vegas. But his tenure serves as a warning: in the NFL, you're either growing or you're already gone. By the time the 2017 season ended, Del Rio was already a ghost in his own building.