McKenzie just getting started

For all the accolades and high praise being thrown at Derek Carr and Khalil Mack, one could make a legitimate argument that the two players aren’t the primary reason the Raiders are among the elite teams in the AFC this season.

- Michael Wagaman

That honor, general manager Reggie McKenzie believes, might be better suited for owner Mark Davis.

It was Davis who took over the slumping team when his father passed away, hired McKenzie then stepped out of the way as the general manager worked his way through salary cap and roster purgatory and essentially rebuilt the franchise from the ground up.

It was Davis who turned a deaf ear to the critics who shouted for McKenzie’s head after the team won just 11 games in his first three seasons and who was adamant that the GM had his full and complete backing.

“It says a lot for him,” McKenzie said. “We were in constant communication throughout the four years leading up to this year. Nobody’s excited about losing seasons, but he did see the promise and he believed in me. So to me, that’s enough said. I told him my process and he knew it wasn’t going to be a quick fix. We could try it, but that wasn’t my style. That says a lot, because he’s probably getting it from a whole lot of people to hurry up, but that says a lot for Mark Davis.”

Davis’ patience has paid off thus far, probably more than even he could have imagined.

Two years after opening the 2014 season with 10 consecutive losses, the Raiders have done a complete 180 and a hard-charging toward their first playoff appearance in more than a decade.

Their success clearly didn’t come overnight. McKenzie swung and missed with his first head coach, Dennis Allen, and he didn’t exactly knock the ball out of the park with his first two drafts as the Raiders general manager either.

Fans who were buoyed by back-to-back .500 seasons in 2010 and 2011 had a difficult time throwing their support behind McKenzie and clamored for Davis to make a change. He resisted, McKenzie got the draft figured out and now everyone in the Raider Nation is reaping the rewards.