The Raiders have been in a time warp. Del Rio's first year of coaching for the Jaguars was the first year of a 13-year playoff drought for the Silver and Black. It took Del Rio three years to get the Jaguars to the playoffs. What's nice for him is the Raiders are developing a young core of players from the 2014 and 2015 drafts.
While outsiders believe the Raiders need one or two more good drafts to think playoffs, Del Rio came to Oakland with a win-now approach.
"We are in the one-draft approach until proven otherwise," Del Rio said. "We're not in this thing to be patient. You know there is no reason why we can't put in the work and expect to win now."
To his credit, Del Rio came to the Raiders with fresh eyes and a best-man-starts mentality. Cornerback D.J. Hayden was the 12th player selected in the 2013 draft. That hasn't stopped Del Rio from putting two 2014 draft choices ahead of him in fourth-rounder Keith McGill and seventh-rounder Travis Carrie. The Raiders are paying guard Austin Howard $6 million a year. That didn't stop Del Rio from starting J'Marcus Webb, who is making minimum salary, ahead of him.
The Raiders could end up starting seven draft choices from 2014 and 2015 along with nine veteran free agents picked up over the past two years. If this two-year turnaround works, it will be the model of how to reconstruct a team at the bottom of the league.
Training camp practices now have music. The vibe is good. It took two years for Del Rio to build a playoff team around Byron Leftwich, whom the Jaguars drafted in 2003. The pace might be quicker building around Derek Carr, who has one season of experience behind him.
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