With 92 days until the opening game of 2020, we start the count down with the best Raiders player at every jersey number. Today we focus on No. 92.
With the season a few months away, we take a look at the best player to wear the jersey number of the number of days left before the opener on September 13, 2020 against the Carolina Panthers. That game will kick off the new era of Raiders football.
We continue our series with No. 92.
The Raiders currently have a high draft pick on the roster sporting the number 92 jersey in PJ Hall but he has some work to do before he could come close to the player chosen to mark this day. Hall has been a serviceable player since being drafted in the second round 2018 but expectations are high for him if he wants to live up to his draft position.
The player chosen here had no such problems as he more than justified his initial draft position and the price the Raiders paid for his services.
Richard Seymour (2009-2012)
The Richard Seymour experience in Oakland got off to a rocky start as he threatened to not report to the team after they traded a first round pick to the New England Patriots for his services. After a brief standoff Seymour agreed to join the team just before Week 1 of the 2009 season and made an immediate impact with two sacks in his first game.
Seymour would go on to play for the Raiders for four seasons and formed a fearsome defensive tackle tandem with Tommy Kelly. He played in 53 games over those four seasons, recording 18.5 sacks, 42 QB hits, 27 tackles for loss, and was named to the Pro Bowl after the 2010 and 2012 seasons.
The former Georgia Bulldog is the only Raiders defensive lineman to be named to the Pro Bowl in the 21st century which is a testament to his dominance on the field even as the rest of the team struggled. His final season with the team, and in the NFL, was cut short due to injury and rather than bouncing around the league as a journeyman in his 30s, he chose to retire after the 2012 season.
In his four years with the Raiders, Seymour became a fan favorite and was one of the team’s marquee players during that span. He is perhaps best known for slapping Ben Roethlisberger in a chippy game in 2010 after the Steelers quarterback got between Seymour and one of his offensive lineman.
It is a shame that a player of Richard Seymour’s caliber could not have played on better teams but he was precisely the type of leader that helped the Raiders achieve two 8-8 seasons in a row which was a high point for the franchise at the time.