One of the best players to ever wear an Oakland Raiders uniform is defensive back Charles Woodson, who retired after the 2015 season.
The future Hall of Famer was drafted by the Raiders with the fourth overall pick in 1998.
He played his first eight NFL season with the Raiders, being named to the Pro Bowl four times and playing in a Super Bowl. He then left to go play for the Green Bay Packers where he played the next seven seasons before returning to Oakland to close out his career with the Raiders in his final three seasons.
Many of the players that Woodson played with in his final three seasons are on the current Raiders team that sits at 7-2 which is the second best record in the AFC.
Woodson knew that those guys had talent, but recently said that now they have the depth to finish games and be a winning team, via Jerry McDonald of the Mercury News:
“When I first came back three years ago, there were a few players with first-round type talent and we didn’t have any depth,” Woodson said.
“Now you just have more depth, more quality players to go out there and finish ballgames,” Woodson said. “We weren’t able to finish. We might keep it close for awhile, but we could never close it out. Now they’re able to close out games.”
In Woodson’s final three seasons with the team they went a combined 14-34, but in his last season under head coach Jack Del Rio they finished 7-9 and were highly competitive throughout.
Not only have the Raiders not made the playoffs since 2002, but 2002 was also the last time they had a winning record so the buzz surrounding the Raiders has not been this big in over a decade.
Oakland has a bye in Week 10 before hosting the Houston Texans next Monday night, where Woodson will be in attendance.
