AH NFL Challenge: Make the Oakland Raiders a dominant dynasty

Your goal is to make the Oakland Raiders a respectable dynasty with a POD of about 1990 since except for the Jon Gruden years, they were a mostly average at best team.

And no, you cant snuff out Al Davis. That would make it too easy.
 

Bearcat

Banned
Sorry

Sorry, can't be done unless Al dies. Otherwise every other draft pick is some fast guy who can't play.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
Your goal is to make the Oakland Raiders a respectable dynasty with a POD of about 1990 since except for the Jon Gruden years, they were a mostly average at best team.

And no, you cant snuff out Al Davis. That would make it too easy.

And no "this team doesn't exist and that team doesn't exist" ASB antics?

Because 1990's a hard year to start out on.

I saw that challenge and thought: "Easy! Starting early enough with Jim Otto, they were fucking awesome." Then I saw that POD.
 
If you overrule the Jon Gruden "trade" could that do the job? Gruden may have been able to hold them together for a little longer; maybe if they had won the Super Bowl the previous year - nix the Tuck Rule, the Raiders go on to beat the Steelers and then upset the Rams.
 
1990

I agree. This is hard. What may help, though, is Bo Jackson deciding to choose football over baseball, and being influenced by Walter Payton to undergo a brutal training regimen, thus butterflying away his hip injury. Then, in 1991, someone will have to influence Al to take Brett Favre over Todd Marinovich. That is a start, but still doesn't guarantee anything.

Here are some other things that may help:

1. Minnesota and Cleveland, the bidders in the Walker trade, tell Dallas to get bent in 1989 after they don't like their trade demands.

2. The Bills start 2-4 in 1990 instead of 5-1, which almost happened(in that stretch, they should have lost to the Raiders). The Bill team chemistry at the time was terrible, and a start like that could have led to the breakup of that team.

3. Tampa Bay doesn't trade Steve Young to the 49ers in 1987.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
I agree. This is hard. What may help, though, is Bo Jackson deciding to choose football over baseball, and being influenced by Walter Payton to undergo a brutal training regimen, thus butterflying away his hip injury. Then, in 1991, someone will have to influence Al to take Brett Favre over Todd Marinovich. That is a start, but still doesn't guarantee anything.

Here are some other things that may help:

1. Minnesota and Cleveland, the bidders in the Walker trade, tell Dallas to get bent in 1989 after they don't like their trade demands.

2. The Bills start 2-4 in 1990 instead of 5-1, which almost happened(in that stretch, they should have lost to the Raiders). The Bill team chemistry at the time was terrible, and a start like that could have led to the breakup of that team.

3. Tampa Bay doesn't trade Steve Young to the 49ers in 1987.

I'm willing to go with that. A combination of giving the Raiders an advantage while watering down the competition. That works for me.
 
I agree. This is hard. What may help, though, is Bo Jackson deciding to choose football over baseball, and being influenced by Walter Payton to undergo a brutal training regimen, thus butterflying away his hip injury. Then, in 1991, someone will have to influence Al to take Brett Favre over Todd Marinovich. That is a start, but still doesn't guarantee anything.

Here are some other things that may help:

1. Minnesota and Cleveland, the bidders in the Walker trade, tell Dallas to get bent in 1989 after they don't like their trade demands.

2. The Bills start 2-4 in 1990 instead of 5-1, which almost happened(in that stretch, they should have lost to the Raiders). The Bill team chemistry at the time was terrible, and a start like that could have led to the breakup of that team.

3. Tampa Bay doesn't trade Steve Young to the 49ers in 1987.

I have to agree with jab7345 on this one. I think for the Brett Favre scenario, somebody like Ron Wolf or John Madden would still have to be with the Raiders. Here's what I see as a best case scenario...

1990 - If the Bills go 2-4 instead of 5-1 like suggested, then the Raiders would end up with a 13-3 record as opposed to 12-4 in OTL since one of those potential Buffalo loses is to LA. Therefore, the Bills may or may not make the playoffs but if they do, they go down in wild-card flames. This gives the Raiders the home-field advantage as they defeated Miami 13-10 earlier in the year as the Dolphins would most likely be the #2 seed. Somehow, Bo Jackson avoids his career-ending hip injury in the hands of Kevin Walker, after which they play at home against Miami for the right to go to the Super Bowl instead of playing at Buffalo in OTL. The Raiders win the AFC Championship, and face the Giants in the Super Bowl. In a very boring run-oriented Raider-Giant super bowl, the tandem of Jackson and Allen run for 200+ yards, minimize turnovers, control time of possession for 35 to 40 minutes, and their defense plays well enough to limit the Giants running game. Basically, the Raiders would have to play Steeler-ball to win the big game.

2001 - I know we could use the tuck rule scenario but in this case, I will propose this: The Raiders win the last game of the season when the Jets miss the game winning FG so the Raiders go 11-5 (In OTL, Jets K John Hall made that 53 yd fg). THe Raiders win the tiebreaker by points since they never faced the Patriots that season and their divisional records are identical (6-2). As a result, the divisional game is played in Oakland as opposed to New England and the tuck rule and bad weather are completely butterflied away. Under the logic the Raiders are more refreshed from a bye week, they beat the Patriots in the 2nd round and then go on to beat Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship (the Steelers had a reputation for choking in the AFC Championship at that time) and the Raiders somehow beat the Rams in the Super Bowl.

2002 - All I can say for this is, unless Al Davis doesn't trade Jon Gruden to Tampa Bay, the Raiders DON'T face the Buccaneers in the super bowl and get their second in a row.
 
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Bo

I have to agree with jab7345 on this one. I think for the Brett Favre scenario, somebody like Ron Wolf or John Madden would still have to be with the Raiders. Here's what I see as a best case scenario...

1990 - If the Bills go 2-4 instead of 5-1 like suggested, then the Raiders would end up with a 13-3 record as opposed to 12-4 in OTL since one of those potential Buffalo loses is to LA. Therefore, the Bills may or may not make the playoffs but if they do, they go down in wild-card flames. This gives the Raiders the home-field advantage as they defeated Miami 13-10 earlier in the year as the Dolphins would most likely be the #2 seed. Somehow, Bo Jackson avoids his career-ending hip injury in the hands of Kevin Walker, after which they play at home against Miami for the right to go to the Super Bowl instead of playing at Buffalo in OTL. The Raiders win the AFC Championship, and face the Giants in the Super Bowl. In a very boring run-oriented Raider-Giant super bowl, the tandem of Jackson and Allen run for 200+ yards, minimize turnovers, control time of possession for 35 to 40 minutes, and their defense plays well enough to limit the Giants running game. Basically, the Raiders would have to play Steeler-ball to win the big game.

2001 - I know we could use the tuck rule scenario but in this case, I will propose this: The Raiders win the last game of the season when the Jets miss the game winning FG so the Raiders go 11-5 (In OTL, Jets K John Hall made that 53 yd fg). THe Raiders win the tiebreaker by points since they never faced the Patriots that season and their divisional records are identical (6-2). As a result, the divisional game is played in Oakland as opposed to New England and the tuck rule and bad weather are completely butterflied away. Under the logic the Raiders are more refreshed from a bye week, they beat the Patriots in the 2nd round and then go on to beat Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship (the Steelers had a reputation for choking in the AFC Championship at that time) and the Raiders somehow beat the Rams in the Super Bowl.

2002 - All I can say for this is, unless Al Davis doesn't trade Jon Gruden to Tampa Bay, the Raiders DON'T face the Buccaneers in the super bowl and get their second in a row.

In 1991, with Bo Jackson healthy, I think that they could have beat Washington, especially with the confidence of being a SB winner.
 
In 1991, with Bo Jackson healthy, I think that they could have beat Washington, especially with the confidence of being a SB winner.

I don't see the Raiders going to the SB in '91. They would have to go through Denver to repeat and Mile High Stadium in January is not exactly a nice place for the visiting team. I say the Raiders get about 10 or 11 wins in this case but fail to get past the second round. In this scenario, I say it would be the Broncos and Redskins in the Super Bowl with the latter winning.
 
9-4

Yeah, but the Raiders started 1991 9-4. Then, the Buffalo loss in OT in early December hurt them. If they win that game, they probably go on to win the West. They swept Denver that year, and I think that Bo Jackson would have made a difference.
 
I think that the Raiders not going to the SB that year does in fact benefit them because if the Broncos go back and lose, Elway may retire earlier thus putting the Broncos in rebuilding mode in the late 90's as opposed to being the most dominant team, plus if the Silver and Black do draft Brett Favre in '91 and he has close to the same success that he had in GB OTL, the Raiders may be the most dominant team of the late 90's. A downside of Raider success in the 90's is Los Angeles may decide to build them a new stadium and they stay there instead of moving back to Oakland like OTL. Well, it would be a downside for the Northern California Raider fans anyways.

Oh, and possibly the career revival of Rich Gannon may not happen.
 
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