Countdown to 2020: Best Raiders player to wear No. 58 all-time

With 58 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. 58.

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. 58.

One player of recent memory to wear the No. 58 was Napoleon Harris, a linebacker from Northwestern that the team drafted in the first round of the 2002 NFL Draft. Harris was a full-time starter early in his career, and even racked up over 100 tackles in his second season, but he would have only a three-year run with the organization.

With that said, let us look at the best Raiders player to put on the No. 58 in team history.

Monte Johnson (1973-1979)

During the 1970s, the Raiders roster was filled with guys who personified the Raider way of playing football. Guys who put their heart and soul into every play, and played a punishing style of football that made them one of the better teams in all of football.

When it comes to Monte Johnson, he was one of those guys who played with a tenacity that made him a guy the Raiders franchise could count on. He would play injured, giving up his body in the biggest of games, including the “Ghost to the Post” game, an overtime thriller that saw him rack up 22 tackles.

A second round pick out of Nebraska, Johnson played a key role in the Raiders 3-4 defense, teaming with the likes of Phil Villapiano to put the hurting on the opposition. A winner of one Super Bowl, Johnson saw his career end due to a knee injury, but not before appearing in nearly 100 games wearing the Silver and Black.