Raiders give GM Reggie McKenzie 4-year extension through 2020

NAPA, Calif. -- Oakland Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie has been given a four-year contract extension, owner Mark Davis announced Friday night at a team alumni dinner.

"The results and the job that he's done show that he deserves it," Davis told ESPN. "He wants to be here, and we want him.

"I'm really happy with where the organization is with Reggie and [coach] Jack [Del Rio] at the top of the chain. Reggie has put together a hell of a staff in player personnel, done a great job on the cap where now we can build a team."

McKenzie is entering the final season of the contract he signed when Davis hired him in January 2012, less than three months after Al Davis died, to essentially become Oakland's first GM since the elder Davis came on board in 1963.

Part of the job description McKenzie accepted at the time was overseeing a rebuilding project in which he had to deal with what he termed "out-of-whack contracts" while trying to get the team out of "salary-cap hell."

The Raiders have gone 4-12, 4-12, 3-13 and 7-9 in his first four seasons overseeing the team, and McKenzie, a former Raiders linebacker from 1985 through 1988, has hired both Dennis Allen and Del Rio as head coach.

Now, as McKenzie begins his fifth season as GM, the Raiders are a fashionable pick to have a winning season and push for a playoff spot for the first time since 2002.

Strong recent drafts have yielded the likes of All-Pro linebacker/defensive end Khalil Mack, quarterback Derek Carr and receiver Amari Cooper, and Oakland has become a destination for such highly sought-after free agents as Bruce Irvin, Sean Smith, Reggie Nelson and Kelechi Osemele this offseason.

"I didn't want him to become a free agent," Mark Davis said of McKenzie. "It was time to honor him."