Raiders All-Time Team
Although I have thought about my all-time Raiders team often, I have never sat down and written it down or typed it on a computer page, even though I have followed the team closely since its first season in 1960 with the inception of the American Football League.
Now seems to be the time, so here goes.
The Raiders might be the only team in the National Football League that can put 11 players on their all-time offensive team who have been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
Any all-time team has to begin with Jim Otto, the only all-league center the AFL had in its 10-year existence from 1960-69, and he also was selected All-Pro after the AFL-NFL merger was completed in 1970.
To the left of Otto, known as “The Original Raider," during several of those years were guard Gene Upshaw, perhaps the best pulling guard in history, and tackle Art Shell, who in Super Bowl XI held outstanding defensive end Jim Marshall of the Minnesota Vikings without a tackle or an assist.
All three of those Raiders were selected to the NFL’s 100th Anniversary All-Time Team, as Upshaw was chosen for the All-Pro team six times and played in eight Pro Bowls, while Shell made the All-Pro team four times and played in six Pro Bowls.
Tackle Ron Mix played most of his 10-year career Hall of Fame career with the San Diego Chargers, but finished up with the Raiders and played some guard, so he would fit in nicely on the right side with tackle Bob “Boomer” Brown, one of most fierce players in NFL history who was a five-time All-Pro.
If you want someone at right guard who played most of his career with the Raiders, that would be 6-4, 305-pound Steve Wisniewski, who in 13 seasons with the Silver and Black made the Pro Bowl eight times in addition to being selected to the All-Pro team eight times and making the NFL 1990s All-Decade Team. Somehow, Wiz is not in the Hall of Fame.
There’s no question that the greatest quarterback in Raiders history was left-hander Kenny “Snake” Stabler, who passed for 19,078 yards and 150 touchdowns while compiling a 69-26-1 record in 10 seasons, leading Oakland to a 32-14 victory over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI and five straight AFC Championship Games.
Stabler was the NFL’s Most Valuable Player and Offensive Player of the Year in 1974.
The only Raiders running back in the Hall of Fame is Marcus Allen, the leading rusher in franchise history with 8,545 yards and 79 touchdowns in 11 seasons, plus 446 receptions for 4,258 yards and 18 scores.
In Super Bowl XVIII, he rushed for 191 yards and touchdowns of five and 74 yards in a 38-9 rout of the Washington Redskins and was selected as the game’s Most Valuable Player.
Of course, if you need a fullback you could go with Mark van Eeghen, who isn’t in the Hall of Fame but is the second leading rusher in franchise history with 5,907 yards and 35 touchdowns while playing on winning teams in Super Bowls XI and XV.
Without a second running back, the Raiders can go with a three-wide receiver offense on their all-time team, and they have three of them in the Hall of Fame
Tim Brown is the Silver and Black’s all-time leading receiver with 1,070 receptions for 14,734 yards and 99 touchdowns in 16 seasons through 2003 and played nine times in the Pro Bowl.
Fred Biletnikoff is second with 589 catches for 8,974 yards and 76 touchdowns, while Cliff Branch, who played opposite Biletnikoff, had 501 receptions for 8,685 yards and 67 scores, but both had to share the ball with tight end Dave Casper, who had 255 catches for 3,294 yards and 35 touchdowns.
Try covering all four of those guys.
Again, all of those mentioned other than Van Eeghen and Wisniewski have been voted into the Hall of Fame, and you can make a case for both of them to be there, too.
On defense, the Raiders start with Hall of Fame defensive end Howie Long, a five-time All-Pro who had 84 sacks in his career, played in the Pro Bowl eight times, and was selected NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1985.
Richard Seymour, who played the last four seasons of his career with the Raiders after winning three Super Bowls with the New England Patriots and will be inducted along with Branch into the Hall of Fame in August, could be the defensive end opposite Long.
However, the Raiders had several other defensive ends who were outstanding in their careers with the Silver and Black without making the Hall of Fame, including Greg Townsend, Ben Davidson, and John Matuszak. And young Maxx Crosby, after only three seasons, has shown he could be a part of this team in a few years.
Defensive tackle Chester McGlockton was a rock in the middle of the Raiders defense for six seasons in the 1990s, making the All-Pro team three times while playing in four Pro Bowls. The 6-3, 334-pound McGlockton made 340 tackles, recorded 39½ sacks, forced 10 fumbles, and recovered another five over 90 games with the Silver and Black.
Next to McGlockton on this team would be Tom Keating, a forgotten star from the 1960s. The 6-3, 250-pound Keating was the anchor of the Raiders defensive line that amassed an AFL League record of 67 sacks for 666 yards in 1967, when the Silver and Black recorded a 13-1 record and defeated the Houston Oilers, 40-7, in the AFC Championship Game behind a unit known as the Eleven Angry Men of Defense.
At linebacker, the Raiders start with 6-7, 220-pound Hall of Famer Ted Hendricks, who had 363 tackles and 60½ sacks, while blocking an NFL record 27 kicks in addition to making 26 interceptions, with one returned for a touchdown, and recovering 16 fumbles in nine seasons with Oakland.
Hendricks was a six-time All-Pro and played in eight Pro Bowls in addition to being selected to the NFL’s 100-Year Anniversary All-Time Team.
On the other side would be Phil Villapiano, who is not in the Hall of Fame although many people believe he should be. Although tackles were not an official statistic in those days, Villapiano had double digits in many games, made 11 interceptions, returned them for 160 yards, including an 82-yard touchdown in 1972, and recovered 17 fumbles. He also forced a key fumble early in Super Bowl XI. “Foo” played in four Pro Bowls.
Matt Millen, who played on four Super Bowl-winning teams including two with the Raiders, probably is a bit underrated but anchored the Silver and Black linebacking corps in the middle during the 1980s. He’s another player affected because tackles were not an official statistic, but he had nine interceptions, 11 sacks, and eight fumble recoveries in his career, playing nine seasons with the Raiders.
If you want to go to a 3-4 defense, just add linebacker Rod Martin, who intercepted three passes by quarterback Ron Jaworski as the Raiders beat the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XV, and had five tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery in the victory over the Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII.
The Raiders have three Hall of Famers in the secondary, and many people believe safety Jack Tatum would be in Canton, too, had he not paralyzed wide receiver Darryl Stingley with a vicious but legal hit during a 1978 preseason game.
Tatum might have been the hardest hitter in NFL history, but he also had 37 interceptions for 736 yards in his career and made the All-Pro team twice, and played in three Pro Bowls.
Cornerback Willie Brown basically invented the bump-and-run defense and might be the best cover corner in history. Brown had 54 interceptions in his career and returned one 75 yards for a touchdown to put the finishing touches on the Raiders’ victory in Super Bowl XI.
Brown made the All-Time AFL team, was selected to the All-Pro team four times, played in four Pro Bowls and made the NFL’s 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.
Cornerback Mike Haynes was a star for the New England Patriots before playing the last seven seasons of his career with the Raiders through 1989 and was selected to the NFL’s 100-Year Anniversary All-Time Team after playing in nine Pro Bowls and making the All-Pro team eight times. He intercepted 46 passes, returned them for 688 yards and five touchdowns.
Charles Woodson, free safety and cornerback, had two stints with the Raiders, returning to the Silver and Black after winning a Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers. He played 11 total seasons with the Raiders, was selected to play in nine Pro Bowls, was a six-time All-Pro, and had 65 interceptions, 33 forced fumbles, 20 sacks, and 13 touchdowns in his career.
Both Raiders’ kickers on the all-time team also are in the Hall of Fame, as punter Ray Guy averaged 42.4 yards on his towering kicks that were seldom returned, was an eight-time All-Pro, a seven-time Pro Bowler, and was selected to the NFL’s 100-Year Anniversary All-Time Team.
Kicker-quarterback George Blanda played 27 seasons in the NFL before retiring at 48, converting 335-of-639 field goal attempts while making 943-of-959 extra-point tries (98.3 percent), for a total of 2,002 points. In 1970, he led the Raiders to a 4-0-1 record in a five-week stretch by kicking a game-winning field goal or throwing a touchdown pass to win the game in the final minutes and was selected NFL Player of the Year.
Of course, kicker Sebastian Janikowski could be elected to the Hall of Fame in the next few years after becoming the franchise’s all-time leader with 1,799 points on 414 field goals and 557 extra points in 268 games for the Raiders through 2017.
And, oh yes, Managing General Partner Al Davis, Coaches John Madden and Tom Flores, and scouting executive Ron Wolf of the Raiders also are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
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