The last 12 months or so have been a pleasant surprise for Raiders fans. First, they drafted well, not just drafting the best athlete. In fact, after years of drafting almost nothing but duds, they had one of if not they strongest draft classes this past year, based on how their rookies played this season. They went undefeated in the division, including two wins over the Chargers, snapping a 13 game losing streak against San Diego, and though they still missed the playoffs, their 8-8 record after years of 5-11 or worse is a welcome surprise.

Jason Campbell looks like the first legitimate signal caller this team has had since Rich Gannon and unlike Gannon he’s not going to randomly turn ancient one day. Darren McFadden has finally emerged as an explosive lead back, leaving 2009 7^th overall pick Darrius Heyward Bey as the only memory of what was once regarded as the worst drafting stretch in league history (JaMarcus Russell #1 in 2007, Darren McFadden #4 in 2008, and DHB #7 in 2009).

However, all of a sudden, it seems to be going downhill. Not only did Al Davis not pick up Tom Cable’s reasonably priced option to coach the team for the next 2 years, after a great coaching performance in 2010, Davis actually fined 120K for unexplainable reasons (actually Davis did explain them, but I couldn’t understand what the hell he was talking about. Something about Gitmo and JaMarcus Russell).

Replacing Cable at head coach is Hue Jackson, their offensive coordinator, who did a wonderful job with the offense last season. Jackson improved their offense from 31^st in the league at 12.3 per game last year to 6^th in the league at 25.6 this year. It remains to be seen if he has what it takes to be a Head Coach, however.

The Raiders also released easily their best defensive player, Nnamdi Asomugha for financial reasons (owed 17 million in the final year of his deal). All of a sudden, their secondary is very thin. They also will likely lose Richard Seymour, arguably their 2^nd best defensive player, in free agency.

Last and probably worst, Al Davis made an 100 minute public press conference, proving that not only is he still alive (I think…), but he’s also very much in charge of this team, contrary to popular belief after this team drafted much differently than Davis normally would (height/weight/40) last year. I still like my theory that Al Davis didn’t know the draft was on a Thursday in 2010 rather than a Saturday, as was normal. If Davis realizes it’s on a Thursday this year, we could see even more awful drafting by this franchise.

Or maybe I’m wrong and this team will improve to above .500 under Hue Jackson and Davis has changed his ways to keep up with the times and will have another strong draft. Maybe.