Oakland Raiders Among Biggest Underdogs For 2011 Super Bowl

NFL News - February 22nd, 2010 - Written by John

It can be argued with little effort that the Oakland Raiders have made a few inadvisable employment decisions in their past. In fact, Tom Cable is the team's first returning head coach since 2005. But the black and silver finally seem to be aiming it's money in the right direction as it prepares to improve in the 2010 season. Kicker Sebastian Janikowski was granted a four-year, $16 million contract that makes him the richest kicker in NFL history, and hile that seems like an exorbitant amount, the money has to go somewhere, and Janikowski has been the most reliable scorer on the team for years. He score 95 of the Raiders' 1977 points and kicked six field goals of 50 yards or more in '09.

On defense, Oakland has also made it a priority to keep defensive end Richard Seymore. If it can't come to a long-term agreement with the New England Patriots refugee, it will use it's franchise tag to keep him around for another year. That would net Seymore a little more than $12 million for 2010.

Regardless, the Raiders still contend in a conference dominated by the San Diego Chargers for the past several years, and thus, are longshots to win next year's Super Bowl. Bodog has Oakland, among five other teams with 100/1 odds to capture the league title, according to recent NFL Betting Lines.

The Raiders haven't reached the Super Bowl since the 2002 season when they led the league in total offense, but faltered against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Since then, it's been one busted first-round pick after another, including quarterback JaMarcus Russell. Al Davis brought in Baltimore Ravens quarterbacks coach Hue Jackson to be the new offensive coordinator, in hopes of a reclamation project on the former no. 1-overall selection. Russell had a 50.0-rating last season, throwing only three touchdowns with 11 interceptions. He was benched for the last seven games of the season, giving way to Bruce Gradkowski and Charlie Frye. The improvement wasn't dramatic, but there was improvement. Gradkowski threw six touchdowns and won two games until being benched in Week 14.

Of the Raiders' four wins, two of them came against playoff teams. Another was against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Darren McFadden remains the top option at running back, but sat out four games and was limited in nine others due to various injuries. Michael Bush led Oakland in rushing with 589 yards on a 4.8-yard average.

The Raiders' defense ranked 26th in the league, and 31st in total offense. Only St. Louis scored fewer than Oakland's 12.3 points per game.