Countdown to 2020: Best Raiders player to wear No. 60 all-time

With 60 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. 60.

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. 60.

There have been a few starters for the Raiders who wore this jersey number, and wore it well, including Rory Graves, who played for the team in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Graves was a starter at left and right tackle for the Raiders, starting all but three games for the team from 1988 through 1990.

Curt Marsh had a five-year run with the franchise during the 1980s, playing as a reserve left guard. The told on his body forced him to have a dozen surgeries, and he even had to have a foot amputated.

Currently, there is no player wearing the No. 60 on the Raiders roster. However, there once was a player who was downright dominant for the Silver and Black rocking the No. 60 across seven seasons.

Otis Sistrunk (1972-1978)

While his journey to the NFL was a strange one, once he arrived with the Silver and Black, Otis Sistrunk became a dominant defensive tackle for seven seasons. Sistrunk did not play college football, landing with the Marines out of high school, before playing in semi-pro ball and eventually in the Continental Football League.

Finally spotted by the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, the Raiders quickly scooped him up, signing him for the 1972 NFL season. Sistrunk would remain with  the Raiders until the 1978 season, and along the way, he not only was named to a Pro Bowl, but he also played a key role in the team’s Super Bowl XI victory over the Minnesota Vikings.

Sistrunk had a tremendous nose for the ball, and had more than his fair share of fumble recoveries. After 98 regular season starts, and 12 starts in the playoffs, he retired from the game, becoming a professional wrestler. Sistrunk never played on a losing team with the Raiders, and he was a big reason why.