Being mentioned as a potential playoff team by pundits and experts ahead of the season is far from finishing the year as one, but it’s a step. For a team that’s spent the better part of this century as the butt of all league jokes, the Raiders will surely take a little friendly preseason pub.

And generally speaking, it’s been well-warranted. GM Reggie McKenzie took over a dumpster fire of a salary cap situation in 2012, and slowly built up a solid, young core of players while eschewing overpriced, over the hill veterans (some of which he signed in his early days, to be fair). The team’s now built the proper way, with a nucleus resembling that of a contender, led by a potential franchise quarterback in Derek Carr.

Having a potential franchise QB is far from possessing the real thing, but, again, the Raiders will take it. Carr’s production his first two years in the league has already greatly surpassed what the Raiders got from QBs like Kerry Collins, Andrew Walter, JaMarcus Russell, Terrelle Pryor… (I could go on). The former second-rounder deserves a spot in the Top 10 at his position after throwing for 3,987 yards and 32 touchdowns to 13 interceptions last year despite missing the majority of the season opener to injury.

While the traditionalists are still a little hesitant to name Carr a top flight QB, the analytics community is more sold, with Carr finishing 11th and 12th respectively in Pro Football Focus and Football Outsiders 2015 QB rankings.

One player with no such hesitations attached to his worth is pass rusher Khalil Mack. Mack is already considered a Top 5 defender by both the traditional scouting and analytics community after breaking through endless double teams to record 15 sacks and 12 stuffs – essentially, running back sacks – last year. Mack’s equally impressive play against the run is what puts him in the elite company of JJ Watt and Von Miller as Defensive Player of the Year favourites.

Other building blocks for the Raiders include receiver Amari Cooper, coming off a promising rookie season; an imposing offensive line that has kept Derek Carr clean in his first two seasons under centre; a defensive line that features some stout young pieces, and cornerback David Amerson, who came out of nowhere – Washington’s scrap heap to be exact – to quietly put up one of the best seasons at the position last year.

The Raiders’ free agency strategy was evocative of a contending team as well, supplementing strengths with solid if not headline-grabbing free agents, rather than relying on them to fill holes.

Albeit overpriced, outstanding guard (and replacement level tackle) Kelechi Osemele was added as the last piece of a bruising offensive line that was already good against the pass rush, and should now be much improved in the run game. Talented yet overrated pass rusher Bruce Irvin slides in opposite Mack, where the pressure and double teams will be reduced and more in line with his skill level. And veterans Sean Smith and Reggie Nelson round out a secondary that already features some talent in Amerson and first-rounder Karl Joseph.

That’s the good news. The bad? The Raiders feature one of the toughest schedules in terms of travel and are still in a division with two playoff teams from a year ago, one of which happens to also be the defending Super Bowl champions.

On offence, Oakland’s passing game could be tops in the division and one of the better units in the AFC, but there are questions about the running game. Latavius Murray is a fantasy football darling after finishing last season as an RB1. But that was based almost entirely off his workload – third highest in the league – and masked his declining production as the year went on. Murray figures to lose touches, particularly on third down, to promising rookie DeAndre Washington.

And on defence, stopping the run could be problematic with teams targeting undersized inside linebackers Malcolm Smith and Ben Heeney. While Smith and Heeney are viewed as productive players by traditional means because they’re tackle machines, but are exposed by the analytics community as weaknesses against the run.

Talking playoffs in Oakland this year might be a bit premature, but joining the conversation is the first step to McKenzie’s at times sluggish approach paying off, and a nice change from the past 15 years of doom and gloom stories for the Raiders and their fans alike. With a franchise quarterback still not in his prime leading the offence, and a younger version of Von Miller/healthier version of Justin Houston leading the defence, the Raiders’ laughingstock status is in the rearview mirror and ‘envy of the division’ could just be on the horizon.