Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis is displaying patience rarely seen within the organization as he allows general manager Reggie McKenzie to purge the roster of ghastly contracts given out by the previous regime.
Davis pointed to the San Francisco 49ers as a model for where he sees the Raiders in the future.
"You have to have a very solid team and then you can plug one or two guys in," Davis said in an interview with Steve Corkan of the Bay Area News Group on Monday. "I hate to use the example of the team across the bay, but they're in a position now where they have such a good core that they're able to just pick up a guy here or a guy there.
"They're able to bring in a Nnamdi Asomugha or somebody that could possibly help them. If he doesn't (work out), it doesn't really destroy their chemistry badly because they're not counting on Nnamdi to do anything (great), but to augment them."
The 49ers' foundation was built through the draft and supplemented by free-agent veterans such as defensive lineman Justin Smith, a plan Davis sees his team emulating.
Unfortunately for McKenzie, he isn't playing with a full deck. The regrettable Carson Palmer trade and fruitless Aaron Curry swap have robbed the Raiders of their second- and fifth-round picks in the upcoming 2013 NFL Draft.
The second-year GM has purged $50 million in what Davis called "out-of-whack" contracts, including those of veterans Palmer, Stanford Routt, Kamerion Wimbley, Richard Seymour, Michael Huff, Darrius Heyward-Bey and Rolando McClain.
Davis preached patience, saying he believed the Raiders were on the right track to be successful in the near future. Success, Davis clarified, is not making the playoffs, but winning Super Bowls.
"In my lifetime, we've had three successful seasons," Davis said. "That's the absolute truth. That's the way I live my life. That's the way we live our lives. What we're trying to build is a team that is going to go after Super Bowls. It can't just be a one-shot deal."
Follow Kevin Patra on Twitter @kpatra.
