The writing was on the wall for the Oakland Raiders heading into the 2018 NFL season when Jon Gruden took over as head coach. Before the year even started, the team traded one of their best players in linebacker Khalil Mack to the Chicago Bears.
The roster overhaul continued with the trade of star wide receiver Amari Cooper to the Dallas Cowboys after a 1-5 start. In return the Raiders got a haul of draft picks, signaling the start of a rebuild. The team’s 4-12 record also signaled that change was imminent.
That rebuild continued into this past offseason when another of the team’s best players, offensive lineman Kelechi Osemele, was traded to the New York Jets. In three seasons with the Raiders, Osemele was named a Pro Bowler twice and All-Pro once. For him though, he was the writing on the wall that his time in the organization was soon coming to an end when he saw Cooper dealt to the Cowboys, via Brian Witt of NBC Bay Area:
“That for sure was like the dagger,” Osemele said of finding out Cooper had been traded. “You could feel it. Like, people were talking about it in the locker room, like, ‘Yo, I guess they’re like really rebuilding.’ You just, like, knew at that point.”
Osemele also noted that the team only found out about the Cooper trade during the middle of practice, so he and his teammates were a bit caught off guard at the time.
Cooper and Mack both did well with their new squads this past season. On the other end of the equation, the Raiders ended up with three 2019 first round draft picks that they used on Clelin Ferrell, Josh Jacobs and Johnathan Abram.
The team’s rebuilding will hopefully payoff this year. Although many Raiders rookies will be seeing large roles, additions of wide receiver Antonio Brown and safety Lamarcus Joyner will help to steer the team in the right direction.
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