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Today is the first day of practice for the Oakland Raiders preparing for Week 1 of the regular season, which also marks officially just 7 days to go til the start of the season. With just one more week to go before the Raiders kick off the new season lets take a look at who wore the number 7 best, and who wears it now.
Who wore it best: QB Steve Beuerlein (1988-90)
There were actually two worthy options in my opinion for the number 7 in our countdown, punter Jeff Gossett who has the 3rd most punting yards in Raiders history was the other option. However, QB is the most important position in the game and Beuerlein went on to have a long 14 year career.
Most of those 14 years were on other teams, but Beuerlein was drafted in in the 4th round of the '88 draft by the Raiders where he spent his first two seasons. Though he suited up for just 20 games in the Silver and Black, he started 15 of them and completed 213 off 455 passes for 3,320 yards with 21 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. Those passing yards rank as the 15th most in Raiders history. Not bad for a guy who only really had one year starting for the team and good enough to be considered the best Raiders player ever to wear the number 7.
Who's wearing it now: P Marquette King
Hoping to follow in the footsteps of the great Ray Guy who earned the honor of best to ever wear the number 8, Marquette King is the current punter for the Raiders. King has big shoes to fill considering Ray Guy is the first and only punter ever elected into the hall of fame, and the guy who was most recently the punter before Marqette King was Shane Lechler who might end up being the 2nd punter elected to the hall of fame.
King is doing his best to honor those previous Raider greats by averaging 46.8 yards a punt since taking over the position for Oakland. He already is up to 6th place in the Raiders history for punting yardage with 9,037 yards so far and he doesn't look to be slowing down anytime soon. It's a weird thing to be proud of I admit, but man the Raiders really do have a great history at this position.
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