Heading into the 2017 NFL season, the expectation was that the Oakland Raiders would be one of the best teams in football. Coming off a 12-win season in 2016, all the stars seemed to be aligning that Derek Carr would lead this team deep into the playoffs.
However, Carr broke his back early in the year, and the addition of offensive coordinator Todd Downing was just not the right choice. That led to the offense being extremely inconsistent, and the defense just was not good enough to pick up the slack, especially in the defensive backfield.