Countdown to 2020: Best Raiders player to wear No. 63 all-time
By Daniel Davis
With 63 days until the opening game of 2020, we start the count down with the best Las Vegas Raiders player at every jersey number. Today we focus on No. 63.
The NFL season is getting ready to open and we’re just about two months away from opening day. Like any NFL fan stuck that has seen the sports world put on hold the last few months, seeing the Las Vegas Raiders trot onto the field in Week 1 cannot come soon enough.
This offseason, the Raiders focused on wide receiver options in the form of drafting Henry Ruggs III and Bryan Edwards, while also bringing in Nelson Agholor, providing for some intense wide receiver competition during the preseason.
Currently, the player wearing #63 is Kamaal Seymour, a rookie tackle out of Rutgers. Seymour is an undrafted free agent on a team with two solid tackles already in Trent Brown and Kolton Miller. The one thing Seymour has going for him is his size. He’s 6’6″ and 319 pounds, and played a ton of football at Rutgers, so it will be interesting to see if he can carve out a roster spot this summer.
With 63 days until the regular season opener, we continue our look at the best players to wear each jersey number for the team, and No. 63 is a no-brainer.
Gene Upshaw (1967-1981)
The best Raiders player to wear No. 63 in team history is Gene Upshaw, who was a guard from 1967 through the 1981 season. Playing his entire career with the Raiders organization, he was a member of some of the best teams the franchise has put together, and many consider him one of the best football players of all-time.
Obviously one of the best guards in NFL history, Upshaw was a beast against some of the more dominant defensive players and shut down many of the best, most notably Alan Page in Super Bowl XI.
Upshaw was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1987, a first-ballot player in fact. Upshaw played 307 games in his career including ten title games and three Super Bowls. He was also a 7-time Pro Bowl selection, selected as a member of the All-Decade Team for the 1970s, and was named to the 75th-anniversary team by the NFL in 1994.
Upshaw passed away in 2008 a the age of 63. You can read his full Hall of Fame bio here.