Reggie McKenzie Retained by Raiders: Latest Details, Comments, Reaction

Despite the Oakland Raiders struggling to turn things around the past three seasons under general manager Reggie McKenzie, team owner Mark Davis is evidently satisfied enough with the direction of the franchise to retain McKenzie, though he hinted a change could be made in the future.  

Tim Kawakami of MercuryNews.com provided a synopsis of Davis discussing McKenzie's status within the organization:

Yesterday, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network explained one reason Davis would be inclined to retain McKenzie:

In November, Davis foreshadowed this decision, offering McKenzie a vote of confidence, via NFL.com's Dan Hanzus:

"

We are in really good shape, based on the way Reggie put all the contracts together and everything else. We're not settled with a lot of upside-down situations anymore. The situation he walked into originally was pretty tough. The deconstruction phase of that went very, very well. I think we're a pretty desirable place for someone that wants to come in and build.

"

Calling the situation McKenzie inherited "tough" would be putting it gently. When the former Raiders linebacker was hired in January of 2012, Oakland's roster was filled to the brim with overpaid, under-performing players. And thanks to the prior regime's astonishingly awful trade for Carson Palmer, he was without a first-round pick in his debut draft. 

Heading into McKenzie's second season, Rotoworld's Evan Silva didn't hold back on the criticism: 

Still, after a major roster overhaul, the Raiders seem to be moving in the right direction. Derek Carr and Khalil Mack look to have very bright futures, while Latavius Murray and others have shown plenty of potential. There is still work to be done throughout the roster, but the talent level seems to be at least trending upward. 

Of course, with the NFL being a win-now league, McKenzie's job is far from safe. With the Raiders' future in Oakland murky, he's going to have start showing some results very soon. 

Nevertheless, he has put the building blocks in place, and it will be interesting to see if can continue to turn this franchise around. A strong 2015 draft class will be an important part of that.