Where Charles Woodson fits among the Raiders greats

Not long ago, I wrote a piece where I attempted to name the three greatest players in Oakland Raiders history. As I noted in the piece, that was an incredibly difficult task given the depth of amazing players to have donned the Silver and Black.

Now, I will try and attempt a task nearly as difficult by looking at where Charles Woodson fits among the Raiders greats.

Hall of Fame

Woodson, who retired last year after his second stint with the Raiders, is a guaranteed first ballot Hall of Famer. But when you’re talking about a position among the greatest Raiders of all time, simply being in the NFL Hall of Fame doesn’t mean a whole lot. There are 21 Raiders in the Hall of fame and that doesn’t include John Madden, Al Davis or Ron Wolf.

There is, however, something to be said for being a first ballot Hall of Famer. Only seven players in Raiders history have been voted into the Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility and three of those were known more for their time with other teams: Jerry Rice, Warren Sapp and Rod Woodson.

And that is an excellent transition to our next topic… The Packers.

Raiders vs. Packers

As I noted in the previous section, if you did most of your work with another team, it would be hard to be considered one of the greatest Raiders of all time. As great as Jerry Rice was, he will always be known as a 49er. And that’s fine, but it also means he is not one of the greatest Raiders of all time.

But what about Woodson? He spent most of his career, 11 of 18 years, with the Oakland Raiders. BUT, he went from being very, very good to being great while with the Packers. Which is also where he won his only Super Bowl.

But there’s more to Woodson’s connection with the Raiders than that. When he came back to Oakland, it was at a time when there wasn’t a whole lot of reason to sign with the Raiders. Sure, Woodson was older but he was clearly still good enough to sign on with a team who was close to winning a Super Bowl. Instead, he spent his final years trying to help turn around a struggling Raiders franchise.

For that reason, he will always be remembered by Raiders fans as a true Raider.

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Super Bowl

For whatever reason, position players aren’t measured by Super Bowls the way that quarterbacks and coaches are. But it’s still something to be discussed when talking about the greatness of a player. Woodson won only one Super Bowl and unfortunately, he was injured during the game and missed most of it.

That being said, he was a crucial part of that Packers team. Without Woodson, there is no way that the Packers would have been in position to even be in the Super Bowl. The fact that he broke his collar bone in that game should not take away from his credentials.

Conclusion

Charles Woodson is one of the greats in NFL history, without a question. Not only to play at such a high level for such a long time, but to then change positions late in his career and still play at a high level is very impressive. Yes, he spent some time with the Packers, but it’s clear he is a Raider through and through.

I think that with out a doubt, he is one of the ten greatest Raiders of all time. Personally, I put him in the top five, but I also need to acknowledge my bias. Woodson was one of my favorite players growing up and I absolutely loved watching him play football. But bias aside, I still think it’s hard to argue against his place in the top ten of all time Raiders.

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