447. 32 Fans in 32 Days: #20(t) Las Vegas Raiders

Adam Brooks is back for his annual visit to talk about Jon Gruden and the Raiders. Alex isn't on today's pod and Keev forgot to share any of Alex's notes that he asked be shared on the pod, so we'll put Alex's hot take here in the show notes: Akiva asked Alex to make a longshot Super Bowl pick. Alex picks the Raiders. Now, both Keev and Alex have the Raiders ranked #22 so it's not like Alex is much higher on them than Akiva is. But only 7 teams have lower SB odds than the Raiders do at 60 to 1, and Alex feels like the Raiders are by far the most likely of those high-odds teams to pull of a magical season. They were a playoff contender most of last season. They beat the Chiefs in Kansas City! Say what you will about Gruden (and Alex has, for years), but the Raiders have improved in every one of his seasons. Derek Carr has entered Cousins/Tannehill territory as one of the most underrated QBs in the NFL. He's been a top 10 QB each of the last two years with Gruden and he gets no credit for it. They're starting a pair of 2nd year WRs who should only be better after rookie seasons without real camp. Their defense still isn't good, but there's room for improvement. Who says Yannick Ngakoue can't bounce back after a weird year and provide a dozen sacks and a consistent pass rush? Is Alex picking the Raiders to win the Super Bowl? No. Does he think they have a better chance than any team with big odds? Absolutely. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices