2006 Oakland Raiders season

The 2006 Oakland Raiders season was the franchise's 37th season in the National Football League (NFL), the 47th overall, the 12th back in Oakland, and the only under head coach Art Shell (in his second stint). They failed to improve on their 4–12 record from 2005, and ended with the Raiders having a 2–14 finish, the worst record in the 2006 NFL season, the worst season since the team went 1–13 in 1962, and their worst since the NFL went to a 16-game schedule in 1978, thus earning the right to the No. 1 pick in the 2007 NFL draft.

Despite being one of the league's best defenses, the 2006 Raiders' offense struggled heavily, being the worst offense in the league in 2006, having only 168 points scored (10.5 per game), which is the fifth-fewest by an NFL team in a 16-game schedule.^[1] Oakland's two starting quarterbacks – Andrew Walter and Aaron Brooks – each threw only three touchdown passes all year; a seventh was thrown by backup Marques Tuiasosopo.^[2]

Since losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl XXXVII, the Raiders had a four-year aggregate record of 15–49 from 2003 to 2006, the worst in the NFL over that span. The only two games that the Raiders won were against the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals, who incidentally would play against each other in Super Bowl XLIII just 2 seasons later. The Raiders would beat both teams again in 2018.

According to Born Free Raider, the 2006 Raiders had the 6th largest offensive-defensive gap in the history, ranking 32nd in offense, but 18th in defense, behind the 2011 Patriots, 2002 and 2004 Chiefs, the 1992 Seahawks, and the 1991 Eagles.^[3]