Raiders Coach Jackson Guarentees AFC West Crown

The Oakland Raiders and their first-year head coach Hugh Jackson are engaging in a little chest puffing.

Jackson guaranteed to reporters that his Raiders would win the AFC West.

“We’re not backing down from what the expectation is here by no stretch of the imagination. It’s not going to change,” Jackson said. “We’re going to win the AFC West. We’re going to do everything we can to get in the playoffs and go challenge for a Super Bowl. I am not backing down from that.”

In a way, Jackson has a reason to be optimistic. His team swept the division last season and continued that trend thus far this year by dispatching of the Denver Broncos a few weeks ago.

Still, the Raiders are a different team than they were in 2010. Their secondary is significantly weaker without Pro Bowler Nnamdi Asomugha. They also lost TE Zach Miller in free agency.

The Raiders’ running game is still strong, however, and while Jason Campbell is no world beater, he doesn’t have to be when Darren McFadden is embarrassing defenses.

I’m not big on guarantees. Never have been. Confidence is one thing but putting a bull’s eye on yourself can sometimes do more harm than good. Then again, Chiefs FB Le’Ron McClain guaranteed last week that the Chiefs would win their next five games.

So far so good.

What do you think, Addicts? Is Jackson just trying to fire up his team after a loss or will his guarantee make things harder on the Raiders when word of his prediction gets back to the rest of the division?