Oakland Raiders: Biggest Questions Left to Answer Before Start of Season

The Oakland Raiders have gone through a tremendous overhaul this offseason. With a lot of new faces and a brand-new coaching staff, this team is much different—and much improved—from the one we saw last season.

No area of the team was left untouched. At every position, the team will look different from last year. Every position group has a new starter or a new key reserve.

With the roster now mostly settled, it's time to look forward and see how this rebuilt roster can be turned into an actual winning team. The Raiders are an exciting team and for good reason. They're young and talented in every area, but that won't matter if things don't come together on the field.

Even with all of the improvements Oakland has made this offseason, the team still has a lot of important questions to answer. Answering those questions begins in training camp.

Can Khalil Mack Live Up to the Hype?

Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

Midway through July, with NFL training camps just around the corner, NFL.com’s Conor Orr named Khalil Mack No. 1 on his list of players who will be “Making the Leap” this upcoming season. Orr noted this about the second-year linebacker:

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While watching the Pro Bowl with colleague Kevin Patra this year, I kept wondering why we weren't seeing Oakland's dynamic pass rusher [Khalil Mack] on the field. There are plenty of snubs each year, but Mack's was akin to Odell Beckham's initial snub. The only problem was that it wasn't corrected.

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He went on to add:

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Depending on who you ask, Mack was the best player at his position this past year, and according to Pro Football Focus, there were only a handful of players around the league who pressured opposing quarterbacks more frequently. ... This year, he will be making the leap to a player that cannot be ignored anymore.

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This type of praise has been a constant throughout the offseason. There's been no shortage of praise for Mack this summer.

The expectations are high for Mack, and the bar for him has been set at “Pro Bowl.” That’s a lot to ask from a player entering only his second year in the NFL on a rebuilding defense.

The difference for Mack is that he isn’t part of the defensive rebuild. He is the rebuild.

As Oakland continues to try to turn things around on defense, it’s Mack who’s expected to lead the way. The defense is being built around him. Not only does he have the eyes of everyone in Oakland on him, but he also has the attention of everyone around the league.

Mack is facing an incredible amount of pressure simply to be not just good, but great. That’s what the league expects from him, and it’s what Oakland needs from him.

Whether he can meet these expectations will play a huge part in determining how much the Raiders actually improve this season.

Who Will Be the Starting Right Tackle?

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Along the offensive line, the Raiders are set at left tackle (Donald Penn), left guard (Gabe Jackson) and center (Rodney Hudson). Even at right guard, Oakland has reasonably reliable veteran options in Khalif Barnes and J’Marcus Webb.

Right tackle, on the other hand, remains one big question mark as the team gets ready to begin training camp.

As of now, the leading candidates for the position are Austin Howard and Menelik Watson, neither of which inspires much confidence.

The Raiders would love to see Watson, the team’s second-round pick in 2013, finally secure the starting right tackle job, which is what they drafted him to do. However, he’s yet to show that he can be relied on. As he gets ready to head into his third season, he’s yet to show substantial growth.

Given his experience, Howard is the early favorite to start, even though he’s switching back to right tackle after spending last season at right guard. He played right tackle his entire career aside from 2014, so he shouldn’t have much trouble, if any, transitioning back to the outside.

Training camp will have plenty of position battles, but the one for right tackle will be one of the most important. Hopes and expectations are high for Derek Carr this season, and the offensive line has to be able to hold its own in order for Carr to do his job. An especially important part of this will be the right tackle's ability to hold the edge.

Howard and Watson will both be given the opportunity to win the starting job. Whomever the coaches end up selecting could prove to be one of the most crucial decisions of the offseason.

Can Mario Edwards Jr. Be an Effective Pass-Rushing Defensive End?

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The Raiders had a solid overall draft this year, but there was one selection in particular that left some (including yours truly) a bit confused.

In the second round, with several proven pass-rushers still on the board and the team desperate for help on the edge, Oakland instead selected Mario Edwards Jr., a player who finished his college career with a grand total of eight sacks over three seasons, per Sports-Reference.com. That’s an average of only 2.7 sacks per season.

While in college, Edwards’ weight fluctuated widely. Edwards himself admitted that while in school, he weighed in at various times as light as 280 pounds and as heavy as 310 pounds, per Silver and Black Pride’s Levi Damien.

Part of the issue was self-control. ESPN.com’s Jared Shanker noted Edwards' lack of discipline:

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Part of the problem was that he [Edwards] always ate until he was full. It might take a bucket of hot wings or a burrito bowl with quadruple meat and three tacos to do that. That would be lunch, and he’d reorder it in the evening for dinner. Teammates cracked fat jokes, but it didn’t faze Edwards.

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Edwards acknowledged the issue, per Damien: "I feel like if I would have controlled my weight my three years that I could have lived up to what my rankings [coming out of high school] were. However I can't put myself behind the eight ball. I took full responsibility for that. I understand how it works."

There are some things that can be said in defense of the rookie defensive end:

• As noted by Seminoles.com, he played defensive tackle as well as defensive end while at Florida State, so the added weight made sense
• According to the Raiders' official site, he now weighs in at a lean 280 pounds, so the weight is no longer an issue
• The added weight slowed him down; naturally, the loss of weight should increase his speed around the edge

For the sake of the Oakland pass rush, those things better be true. Otherwise, it could be a repeat of last season: The defensive ends won’t be able to generate a consistent pass rush, and the entire defense will suffer because of it.

Can the Raiders Establish an Effective Running Game?

Ben Margot/Associated Press

For all the problems Oakland had last season, the running game was arguably the biggest one. The team finished last in the NFL in rushing, and the absence of a reliable ground attack was frustratingly obvious for most of the season.

The running backs’ play was pathetic overall. That might be harsh, but for a group that put together only three games of over 100 rushing yards all season, it’s accurate.

This year, the Raiders are turning to Latavius Murray, Trent Richardson and Roy Helu Jr. to fix the problem. While Helu’s role will most likely be that of a third-down/pass-catching running back, the battle for the starting job will take place between Murray and Richardson.

Their job will be to turn the offense from a one-dimensional attack to one that opponents have to respect on the ground as well as through the air.

The goals for the running backs are simple: average four or more yards per carry and over 100 yards per game. Accomplishing these two things will only make the rushing attack average, but that will be a huge improvement from last season. Anything more than that will be a bonus.

The one primarily responsible for this improvement will be the starting running back, and the early favorite for the job is Murray. Fortunately, he showed real potential in limited opportunities last season. The hope is that he can sustain the same level of production, if not improve on it, while getting about 20 carries a game over an entire season.

But whomever the starting running back ends up being and however the touches are divided up among these three players, the key for Oakland will be to establish an actual running game. It doesn’t have to be spectacular. It just has to be consistent and effective.

Is D.J. Hayden a No. 1 Cornerback?

Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

When the Raiders selected D.J. Hayden with the 12th overall pick in the 2013 draft, the goal was clear: to have him take over as Oakland’s No. 1 cornerback. Unfortunately, things haven’t gone as planned since then, as a series of injuries and the subsequent lack of playing time have severely stunted Hayden’s development.

In 2015, Hayden will enter training camp healthy for the first time since he entered the league. Now that he’s completely free of injuries, he’ll finally be able to benefit from a complete offseason and preseason program. Things are lining up for Hayden to finally be able to fill the role the Raiders brought him in for.

Hayden is already facing tremendous pressure, and it’s only increased given the lack of experience and proven production from the cornerbacks around him. Despite only entering his third season and having missed a lot of games, he’s actually the veteran leader of the group.

Along with Khalil Mack and Mario Edwards Jr., Hayden’s play will determine the fate of the defense as a whole. The team needs him to stay healthy and become an effective cornerback capable of succeeding against the opponent’s top wide receivers.

The cornerbacks will go as Hayden goes. If he can finally live up to his potential and fill the role of a true No. 1 cornerback, every other cornerback’s performance will improve. But if Hayden struggles again, the entire unit will be in for another long season.

Is Derek Carr Oakland's Franchise Quarterback?

Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

It seems like a lifetime ago since Oakland had a quarterback capable of leading the team to success. Actually, it’s only been since 2004. Rich Gannon has been gone for over a decade, and it’s been a revolving door at the position since he retired.

After a long list of failed replacements, the Raiders appear to finally have found their man in Derek Carr. While he went through the growing pains expected from a rookie quarterback, he showed signs that he truly is capable of leading Oakland back to relevance.

The fact is that the NFL is now a quarterback’s league. Effective running backs and good defenses are part of a winning formula. But ultimately, it comes down to whether your quarterback can go out and get you points no matter the situation.

This season, Carr has to prove that he’s that quarterback. This doesn’t mean that he has to lead the team to a run in the playoffs this year. It doesn’t even mean that he has to lead it to the playoffs at all. What it does mean is that he has to prove that he can and that he will.

As encouraging as Carr’s rookie season was, he has to make a major leap this season. At the very least, Carr’s goals this year should be 3,500 yards and 25 touchdowns. Those aren’t spectacular numbers, but they will show solid improvement. And they’ll be a sign that he really is the team’s quarterback of the future.

Oakland has placed its hope for the future on Carr’s shoulders. This season, he has to prove that he’s the right man for the job.

Is This the Coaching Staff That Will Finally Lead Oakland Back to Success?

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

For all the problems the Raiders have had on the field over the past decade, the problems on the sideline have been just as detrimental.

For years, Oakland has tried to find the next Jon Gruden—a young, up-and-coming star head coach who will break onto the national scene as a Raider. But instead of finding the next Gruden, the team has found guys like Lane Kiffin and Dennis Allen. Basically, all of the organization’s experiments have failed.

This year, the Raiders went in a different direction. Rather than trying to find a new name, the team instead went in the direction of experience and brought in Jack Del Rio. Since his arrival, Del Rio has built his coaching staff with coaches with proven track records, such as defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. and offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave.

While definitely more experienced than other recent coaching staffs, this coaching staff isn’t free of questions and doubts.

Del Rio has nine years of head coaching experience, but he compiled a sub-.500 record in that time and made only two playoff appearances. Norton is an exciting, inspiring figure, but this is first time as a defensive coordinator. It remains to be seen whether his enthusiasm translates to actual X's and O's.

Still, despite the questions, this is the most competent coaching staff Oakland has seen in quite some time. Nothing is guaranteed, but this group of coaches certainly has the potential to lead the Raiders to success.

We won’t know how good this coaching staff really is until we see the team in actual games. What we do know is that Oakland is much more talented than it has been in a long time. These players are capable of finally turning around the fortunes of the team and getting back to winning.

The only question now is whether this is the right coaching staff to lead them.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats taken from Pro-Football-Reference.com and NFL.com.

What do you think is Oakland's biggest question to answer in 2015? Share your thoughts in the comments section below and on Twitter @BrianJ_Flores.