NFL Teams Betting - Oakland Raiders - AFC West

The Raiders are stacked at wide out and running back with blazing fast talent. Jacoby Ford, Denarius Moore, and Darius Heyward-Bey (who showed signs of improvement in 2011) are burners. Darren McFadden is one of the top five running backs in football when healthy, and Taiwan Jones should contribute more in his second season. Oakland had the 18th toughest schedule in 2012, their opponents winning .496 per cent of their games in 2011. But even the games on Oakland's schedule against teams with losing records last year provide a tough task for a team who didn't inject any young talent in the draft until the 95th pick.

The Raiders’ 2011 season will be remembered most for the Oct. 8 death of iconic team owner Al Davis, which rocked the franchise and set off a series of aftershocks that continue to reshape the organization.

Shortly after the season ended, new owner Mark Davis (Al’s son) hired long-time Packers personnel man Reggie McKenzie as general manager. The no-nonsense McKenzie quickly fired coach Hue Jackson and replaced him with Denver defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, a 39-year-old, demanding coach who had helped turn around the Broncos’ defense and vowed to transform the Raiders into a smart and disciplined team. McKenzie then went to work getting the Raiders’ fiscal house in order and ridding the team of some contracts he called “out of whack.” Cornerbacks Stanford Routt and Chris Johnson, tight end Kevin Boss and outside linebacker Kamerion Wimbley were released.

From the day he was hired, McKenzie has worked to remake and modernize a Raiders franchise that had been ruled by Al Davis for over four decades. The question now is whether all those changes will help the Raiders make the playoffs for the first time since 2002.